Team India's much-awaited squad for the Test series against Bangladesh is set to be announced next week. The two-match rubber between the two teams is scheduled to get underway on September 19 with the matches to be played in Chennai and Kanpur. Meanwhile, India's domestic season is also getting underway with the red-ball tournament Duleep Trophy on September 5 and quite a few Test hopefuls have been picked in four different teams.
According to the sources, the selectors will have a keen eye on the performers from the Duleep Trophy. The likes of KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer will be keen on staking their claim again in the Indian squad after losing their spot from the team for different reasons during the England series at home earlier this year.
While Iyer was dropped after the first two Tests, KL Rahul was injured and ruled out midway through the series. However, the players replacing them - Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel - fared decently and even they will also be featuring in the Duleep Trophy. This means there will be a tussle for multiple places in the middle-order.
At the same time, Virat Kohli who missed the entire England Test series for personal reasons is set to return while Rishabh Pant, in all probability, will also make a comeback as a wicketkeeper-batter for the first time since surviving the deadly accident in December 2022. This will leave the middle-order batters - Rahul, Sarfaraz, Iyer, Jurel, Rajat Patidar - jostling only for a couple of spots in the squad.
While India's spin attack looks settled, the pace bowling attack will be thin on experience at least for the Bangladesh series it seems. The selectors will have a keen eye on the fast bowlers with Mohammed Shami (injured) and Jasprit Bumrah (to be rested) unlikely to play the upcoming Test series while there is no update on Mohammed Siraj who pulled out of the Duleep Trophy due to illness. If all of the first-choice bowlers remain unavailable, then the likes of Mukesh Kumar, Prasidh Krishna and a host of others who are featuring in the Duleep Trophy will get a chance at the highest level depending on their performance.
Duleep Trophy Squads
Team A:
Shubman Gill (C), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat.
Team B:
Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK).
Team C:
Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Umran Malik, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (WK), Sandeep Warrier.
Team D:
Shreyas lyer (C), 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.
