Duleep Trophy 2018: BCCI names a replacement for Abhishek Gupta who is serving a doping ban

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee recently announced the teams for the upcoming four-day games against South Africa ‘A’ and the Quadrangular series. The selectors also picked up the squads for the Duleep Trophy, 2018-19. Punjab’s wicket-keeper batsman Abhishek Gupta who was initially named in the India Red side is currently serving an 8-month ban for a doping violation and thus after bringing the ban in the notice, the selectors have removed him from the upcoming edition of Duleep Trophy.

Gupta’s replacement named

The All-India Senior Selection Committee named Akshay Wadkar as the replacement keeper batsman for the banned Abhishek. Akshay had a successful Ranji Trophy season for Vidarbha in their maiden title triumph. Gupta’s eight-month doping violation ban which came into effect from 15th January 2018 will be ending at midnight on 14th September 2018.

“The eight-month period of ineligibility will, therefore, be deemed to have started to run on 15th January 2018, so that it will end at midnight on 14th September 2018,” said the statement released by the BCCI on Gupta’s ban on June 7.

The Duleep Trophy 2018-19 will be played at NPR College Ground in Dindigul from August 17 to September 8. India Red, India Blue, and India Green are the participants. The matches will be played in the Day-Night format with the pink ball and will start from 1:30 pm IST.

Faiz Fazal, Abhinav Mukund, and Parthiv Patel announced as captains

Faiz Fazal, who played a crucial part in Vidarbha’s maiden Ranji Trophy triumph last season, will lead the Blue team. The likes of Dhruv Shorey, who had an impressive domestic stint last time around, fast-bowlers Basil Thampi Jaydev Unadkat and Dhawal Kulkarni, all of who plied their trade in this season’s prestigious Indian Premier League, are also a part of the team.

Tamil Nadu batsman Abhinav Mukund was appointed as the skipper of the Red team. The squad consists of significant names in the form of Baba Aparajith, Rajneesh Gurbani, Shahbaz Nadeem and Abhimanyu Mithun. Ishan Porel, who was a member of the Indian U19 squad in New Zealand, was also drafted in.

Wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel was assigned the captain’s role for the Green team. Punjab all-rounder Gurkeerat Mann, right-arm fast-bowler Ashok Dinda and leg-break bowler Karn Sharma, all of who played for the Indian national team, form the core of the Green side.

Here are the updated squads:

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 & WK), Prashant Chopra, Priyank Panchal, Sudeep Chatterjee, Gurkeerat Mann, Baba Indrajit, V.P. Solanki, Jalaj Saxena, Karn Sharma, Vikas Mishra, K. Vignesh, Ankit Rajpoot, Ashok Dinda, Atith Sheth

For more news alerts, follow CricTracker.com.