Only two days are left until the Duleep Trophy kicks off, but the teams are still adjusting their squads due to injuries and last-minute changes. Team India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav, was set to play for India C in the opening match against India D in Anantapur, but will now miss the game due to a hand injury sustained during the Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament.

Suryakumar will now be at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru for recovery, as the injury that was initially thought to be minor, has turned out to be more serious. The NCA medical team has advised him to rest, which puts his Test comeback hopes on hold.

Teams Left Imbalanced After Surya’s Injury & Jadeja’s Withdrawal

A strong performance in the Duleep Trophy could have bolstered Suryakumar’s chances for a Test recall, but now the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee faces a decision: to name a replacement for him or wait for his recovery.

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Besides Suryakumar, fast bowler Umran Malik has also been ruled out with an injury, leading to his replacement by Gaurav Yadav. Additionally, Ravindra Jadeja’s unexpected release from the India B squad without an official reason has left both India B and India C with only 14 players each. In contrast, the India A squad, led by Shubman Gill, has 16 players, and India D has 15.

Such imbalances in squad numbers aren’t new in Indian domestic cricket, as similar situations have occurred before. The selection committee may yet add new players to the India B and India C squads to address these shortages.

Nitish Kumar Reddy’s fitness has been confirmed by the NCA. He had been initially sidelined due to a groin injury that led to his withdrawal from the T20I squad for the Zimbabwe tour in July.

Revised Squads For The First Round Of Duleep Trophy

India A: Shubman Gill (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel (wk), KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat.

India B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (wk)

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India C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (wk), B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Gaurav Yadav, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (wk), Sandeep Warrier

India D: Shreyas Iyer (capt), 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 (wk), Saurabh Kumar