Suryakumar Yadav to miss first round of Duleep Trophy 2024 due to hand injury

Indian batter, Suryakumar Yadav, who was originally named in the India C squad for Duleep Trophy, is recuperating from a hand injury he sustained while fielding during last week's pre-season fixture against TNCA XI at the Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament in Coimbatore. He is currently at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru for a routine evaluation.

After injuring his hand during the game, the Mumbai team management took a conscious call of preserving Suryakumar by not allowing him to take the field to bat in their second innings in a bid to let him rest for the season-opener in the Duleep Trophy. 

India's current T20I skipper recently expressed his desire to be a constant feature in the red-ball format as well. With that in mind, Suryakumar made himself available for the Buchi Babu tournament followed by the Duleep Trophy considering a packed red-ball schedule for India with the Men in Blue slated to play 10 Tests across the next five months. 

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With his only Test coming against Australia last year, Suryakumar would have hoped to participate in the domestic tournaments and make the most of the opportunities to get back into the reckoning.

Three other prominent cricketers unavailable for opening round as well

Suryakumar is not the only cricketer to be ruled out of the opening round. Pacemen, Mohammed Siraj and Umran Malik, representing India B and India C, respectively, have been sidelined due to illness. Navdeep Saini and Gaurav Yadav have been listed as their replacements. 

Star all-rounder, Ravindra Jadeja, has been made unavailable as well, although there was no concrete reason which the Board of Control for Cricket in India cited for Jadeja's absence.

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Incidentally, India C, led by Ruturaj Gaikwad, will go up against Shreyas Iyer's India D at the ACA ADCA Ground in Anantapur.