Suresh Raina (centre) after winning the 2017 Duleep Trophy.
The All-India Senior Selection Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) met in Kolkata on Monday to pick the squad for the Duleep Trophy 2018-19.
The BCCI has named Akshay Wadkar as the replacement for wicket-keeper batsman Abhishek Gupta in the India Red squad for Duleep Trophy after realising their blunder of picking a player banned for a doping violation till September 14.
"It was brought to notice by the BCCI Anti-Doping team that Mr. Abhishek Gupta who was initially added in the India Red squad is serving an 8-month ban for a doping violation. The Senior Selection Committee has reached a consensus that Mr. Akshay Wadkar will be included in the India Red team as Mr. Gupta's replacement," said the BCCI.
In June, Gupta was handed a retrospective eight-month suspension for an "inadvertent" doping violation. The 27-year-old's suspension started from January 15 and will end on September 14.
Gupta had inadvertently ingested a prohibited substance (terbutaline), which can be commonly found in cough syrups, the BCCI had said back in June, accepting the player's version of the incident.
The revised squad is as follows:
India Blue: Faiz Fazal (Captain), Abhishek Raman, Anmolpreet Singh, Ganesh Satish, N. Gangta, Dhruv Shorey, K.S. Bharat (WK), Akshay Wakhare, Saurav Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Basil Thampi, B Ayappa, Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni.
India Red: Abhinav Mukund (Captain), R.R. Sanjay, Ashutosh Singh, Baba Aparajith, Writtick Chatterjee, B. Sandeep, Akshay Wadkar (WK), S Nadeem, Mihir Hirwani, Parvez Rasool, R Gurbani, A Mithun, Ishan Porel, Y. Prithvi Raj.
India Green: Parthiv Patel (Captain and WK), Prashant Chopra, Priyank Panchal, Sudeep Chatterjee, Gurkeerat Mann, Baba Indrajit, V.P. Solanki, Jajal Saxena, Karn Sharma, Vikas Mishra, K. Vignesh, Ankit Rajpoot, Ashok Dinda, Atith Sheth.
The Senior Selection Committee also named squads for the upcoming four-day games against South Africa 'A' and the Quadrangular series, respectively.
Batsman Shreyas Iyer, who recently led India A in the England A Team Tri-Series, will lead India 'A' side in the four-day games against South Africa 'A'. On the other hand, batsman Manish Pandey will captain India 'B' team in the series.
India 'A' squad for four-day games against South Africa 'A' is mentioned below:
Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, R Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, A.R. Easwaran, Hanuma Vihari, Ankit Bawne, K.S. Bharat (WK), Axar Patel (1st four-day game)/Shahbaz Nadeem (2nd four-day game), Yuzvendra Chahal, Jayant Yadav, R. Gurbani, Navdeep Saini, Ankit Rajpoot, Mohammad Siraj.
The squads for quadrangular series are as follows:
India 'A': Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, R. Samarth, Suryakumar Yadav, Hanuma Vihari, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad, Sanju Samson (WK), Mayank Markande, K. Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Chahar, Mohammad Siraj, Shivam Mavi, Khaleel Ahmed.
India 'B': Manish Pandey (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, A.R. Easwaran, Shubhman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Ricky Bhui, Vijay Shankar, Ishan Kishan (WK), Shreyas Gopal, Jayant Yadav, D.A. Jadeja, Siddarth Kaul, Prasidh Krishna, Kulwant Khejroliya, Navdeep Saini.
(With PTI inputs)
