Mumbai, Sep 2: Back from a fatal car accident, India wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant proved his abilities as a super fighter and champion sportsman in the recent ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024. His contributions with the bat and behind the wicket were immense in India's World Cup triumph.
Being a three-format ace cricketer, India would love to see Pant back in the Test matches as well. The upcoming Duleep Trophy is likely to provide him the right opportunity to re-assess his skills in multi-day matches.
Agreed he and KL Rahul have not been named captains of any of the four teams picked by the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee for the Duleep Trophy. But Pant the wicket-keeper batsman is more important to India in any format of the game than Pant the skipper at this juncture.
Because with T20 World Cup winning captain Rohit Sharma leading the Test and ODI sides, other options in these two formats as his potential successors in future, hold little significance at present. Rather, India winning more matches is vital for the team.
Well, this is the first time Pant will play first-class cricket since his car accident in December 2022.
It's understood that Pant will be vying for his spot in Indian Test team via the Duleep Trophy route. However, out of action Mohammed Shami, who underwent a surgery and is recovering, has not been included in any of the four Duleep Trophy squads. After a surgery, Shami is nearing full fitness and has begun bowling at the NCA, Bengaluru.
Worth mentioning that Duleep Trophy was originally a zonal competition featuring teams from six zones - North, South, East, West, Central and North-East. But this year it will have only four teams, named Team A, Team B, Team C and Team D. It is expected that the players who will be picked for the Bangladesh series are likely to be replaced in the Duleep Trophy.
Duleep Trophy 2024-25 Squads (first round):
Team A: Shubman Gill (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra and Shaswat Rawat.
Team B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (Captain),Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy (subject to fitness), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi and N Jagadeesan (wicketkeeper).
Team C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (wicketkeeper), Suryakumar Yadav, B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Umran Malik, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (wicketkeeper) and Sandeep Warrier
Team D: Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan (wk), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (wicketkeeper) and Saurabh Kumar.
