Young and ambitious players will try to dominate the platform of the Dalip Trophy when the red ball competition from Thursday will return to its traditional regional format and with this, India’s domestic cricket session will start. Six regional teams will participate in this competition launched in the 1960s.
In the last session, the stakeholders were not happy when the competition was played between Bharat A, B, C and D teams in a disorganized manner and then the old format of the competition has returned as expected. The tournament did not make much headlines earlier but it has become relevant again after the BCCI made it mandatory for its star players to participate in domestic competitions when it is not in the national team or not injured.
Shardul Thakur, who is in the Indian Test team for the tour of England, will captain the Western region team which includes Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Iyer, who has lost his place in India’s Test team, would like to score a lot of runs, while the same situation is with Sarfaraz which was recently ignored for the England tour.
ANot being selected for the Shia Cup T20 will be an additional source of inspiration for Iyer whose opinion is divided when excluded. Jaiswal was also dropped from the Asia Cup team despite his fault. In both domestic and foreign places, his performance with a red ball has been special for India and he would like to start his session with good innings.
In the Tilak Verma -led South region team, everyone will be eyeing R Sai Kishore who was out of the tournament due to a hand injury. Players like Lokesh Rahul and Sai Sudarshan are not playing in this tournament. Devdutt is making a comeback by recovering from the injury and impressive performance can give him a place in the national team again. He made his debut against England last year but lost his place in the national team after the tour of Australia.
Abhimanyu Ishwar, who kept waiting for the opportunity during the entire England tour, will captain the Eastern region team in the absence of injured Ishan Kishan. It is obvious that after being out of the field for a long time in England, Ishwaran will be desperate to come on the ground and score runs. Despite being a part of the Indian team on many occasions, Ishwaran has not yet made his debut and will have to score runs in domestic cricket. Ghee
The fitness of Mohammed Shami’s red ball will be assessed in the Dabaji department as he has lost his place in the Test team due to injury. The 34 -year -old fast bowler was not part of the tour of Australia and England and last played a Test match in 2023. Only long spells and a lot of wickets can force the selectors to focus on this skilled bowler who has overtaken its top.
Shubman Gill was selected for the captaincy of the north region but is not available for the initial match due to illness. In Gill’s absence, vice -captain Ankit Kumar can command the team. The presence of India’s new Test captain in the Dalip Trophy would have led to even more interest in the tournament but he is not available at the moment. Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, who are in the Asia Cup team, will probably play only in the initial match and then the UAE will join the T20 team.
Arshdeep was out of all five Tests in England, while players like Anshul Kamboj managed to make their debut despite being late in the team. Left -handed fast bowler Arshdeep is desperate to play Test cricket and for this he will have to perform well if he got a chance in red ball competitions. Rana is currently not part of the national selectors’ plans in the long format and hence he has enough reasons to completely throw himself in his initial match for the north region.
Dhruv Jurael and Silver Patidar are notable names in the Central Region team. The tournament will assess Jurael’s leadership skills, while the Patidar will try to return to the national team after losing their place after disappointing performance in the domestic series against England last year. Facing sports veterans for the Northeast region team will be a major challenge and an excellent performance in this context will attract attention immediately.
The teams are as follows:
South Region: Tilak Verma, Mohammad Azharuddin, Tanmay Aggarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohit Kale, Salman Nizar, Narayan Jagadishan, Tripurana Vijay, R Sai Kishore, Tanya Tyagarajan, Vijayakumar Vishak, Nidhish MD, Ricky Bhui, Basil NP, Gurjapanit Singh and Snehal Kauthankar.
East Region: Abhimanyu Ishwar, Sandeep Patnaik, Virat Singh, Danish Das, Shrimm Paul, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Ryan Parag, Utkarsh Singh, Manishi, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep and Mohammed Shami.
Western Region: Shardul Thakur, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Arya Desai, Harvik Desai, Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Jayimit Patel, Manan Hingrajia, Saurabh Nawale, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotion, Dharmandarsinh Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande and Arjan Nagwas
Answer Zone: Shubham Khajuria, Ankit Kumar, Ayush Badoni, Yash Dhul, Ankit Kalsi, Nishant Sandhu, Sahil Lotra, Mayank Dagar, Yudhveer Singh Charak, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Anshul Kamboj, Aqib Nabi and Kanhaiya Vadhavan.
Middle Area: Dhruv Jurael, Rajat Patidar, Aryan Juyal, Danish Malewar, Sanjeet Desai, Kuldeep Yadav, Aditya Thackeray, Deepak Chahar, Summary Jain, Ayush Pandey, Shubham Sharma, Yash Rathore, Harsh Dubey, Manav Sutar and Khalil Ahmed.
North Eastern Region: Jonathan Rongsen, Akash Kumar Chaudhary, Tichi Doria, Yumnum Karnjeet, Seedjhali Rupero, Ashish Thapa, Hem Bahadur Chhetri, Jehu Anderson, Arpit Subhash Bhatevera, Ferozam Jotin Singh, Paljor Tamang, Ankur Malik, Bishworjit Singh Bora and Lamabam Ajay Singh.