Duleep Trophy 2019-20: BCCI appoint Shubman Gill as captain of India Blue; squads finalised

India’s 2019-20 domestic season is all set to get underway with the Duleep Trophy which will be played from August 17 to September 8. A total of three teams – India Blue, India Green and India Red – fight it out once against each other in the league stage before the top two sides play in the final. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the squads now and in an exciting step taken, Shubman Gill has been named the skipper of India Blue side.

Faiz Fazal and Priyank Panchal will lead India Green and India Red sides respectively. Some of the exciting talent in the country will be on show in this competition and all the three teams consist of equally good players. However, India Green players have more players who have got the international exposure. The likes of Karun Nair, Axar Patel and Jaydev Unadkat are part of the 14-man Panchal-led squad and looks a formidable unit.

What about the other two teams?

The players who have been consistent in the Ranji Trophy have been rewarded in the teams. Shubman Gill will have Anmolpreet Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Ankeet Bawne among others to assist him in the India Blue side. On the other hand, Faiz Fazal-led India Green has been boosted with the presence of Dhruv Shorey, Siddhesh Lad, Akshdeep Nath in their batting line-up.

Ishan Kishan will look after the wicket-keeping duties for India Red while Snell Patel and Akshay Wadkar will don the gloves behind the stumps for India Blue and Green respectively. As far as the bowling department is concerned, some brilliant pacers and spinners will be in action in the four matches which will be played during the course of the competition.

This is a great opportunity for the 44 players picked in these three teams and with India set to play a lot of Test matches at home in the near future, the selectors will have an eye on the performances in this tournament.

Here are the squads:

India Blue: Shubman Gill (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajat Patidar, Ricky Bhui, Anmolpreet Singh, Ankeet Bawne, Snell Patel (WK), Shreyas Gopal, Saurabh Kumar, Jalaj Saxena, Tushar Deshpande, Basil Thampi, Aniket Choudhary, Diwesh Pathania, Ashutosh Amar.

India Green: Faiz Fazal (c), Akshath Reddy, Dhruv Shorey, Siddhesh Lad, Priyam Garg, Akshdeep Nath, Rahul Chahar, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Jayant Yadav, Ankit Rajpoot, Ishan Porel, Tanveer-ul-Haq, Akshay Wadkar (WK), Rajesh Mohanty, Milind Kumar.

India Red: Priyank Panchal (c), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Ishan Kishan (WK), Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Mahipal Lomror, Aditya Sarwate, Akshay Wakhare, Varun Aaron, Ronit More, Jaydev Unadkat, Sandeep Warrier, Ankit Kalsi.