K Gowtham, Abhinav Mukund to miss rest of Duleep Trophy

The ongoing Duleep trophy will see K Gowtham and Abhinav Mukund missing out the rest of the tournament. Gowtham will not take further part in the ongoing Duleep Trophy, India Red skipper Dinesh Karthik confirmed on September 12. The Karnataka all-rounder playing for India Red fell ill on the final day of the opening match in Lucknow. He has been replaced by Mumbai’s left-arm spinner Vijay Gohil for the remainder of the Duleep Trophy.

According to media reports, although he will miss the India Red’s match against India Blue starting on September 13, he appears to have recovered from his illness as he was part of the playing XI for Belagavi Panthers in the Karnataka Premier League match against Bellary Tuskers on Tuesday. The 27-year-old is also part of India A’s squad for the series against New Zealand A.

The final of the Duleep Trophy that is scheduled for September 25-29 overlaps with the first of two four-day matches between India A and New Zealand A starting from September 23. Apart from Gowtham, there are as many as eleven players who are part of both Duleep Trophy and India A squads – Priyank Panchal, R Samarth, Sudip Chatterjee, Ankit Bawne, Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant, Shahbaz Nadeem, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj and Ankit Rajpoot being the other ten.

Meanwhile, captain Abhinav Mukund, who missed India Red’s first match against India Green due to dengue, hasn’t recovered yet and has been ruled out of the tournament. He has been replaced by Mumbai’s left-handed opener Akhil Herwadkar. Karthik will continue to lead the side for the rest of the tournament, reported Cricbuzz.

Ishant Sharma, who was initially named in the India Blue squad, has been replaced by Chhattisgarh pacer Pankaj Rao. Tamil Nadu batsman Kaushik Gandhi, who was named in India Blue, has been moved to the India Green squad.