Duleep Trophy: Chance for Gill to impress selectors

After missing the ongoing tour of West Indies, rising batsman Shubman Gill will look to send a strong message to the national selectors when the Duleep Trophy starts here from Saturday.

His selection snub, despite him being in fine touch, was considered unfortunate by many in the cricketing community.

The tournament, though, now mostly serves as a platform for India ‘A’ selection and not primarily the senior team hopefuls, which was the case earlier.

Ahead of the home season, the likes of Gill, Priyank Panchal, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Shreyas Gopal will still leave no stone unturned in their quest to impress the MSK Prasad-led selection committee.

South Africa ‘A’ is coming at the end of this month to play five list ‘A’ and two four-day games. The Proteas’ senior team is also arriving next month for a full-fledged series comprising three T20 internationals and as many ODIs and Test matches.

The three-team tournament, to be played from August 17 to September 9 at various venues here, will witness the best of domestic talent will battle.

Gill will lead India Blue, the defending champions, in the tournament opener against India Green. “Duleep Trophy, personally, I am the captain and it is really important for me to make sure that players are switched on so that not every time they think of personal goals. If we are going to win these matches and get to the final you get one more opportunity to perform,” said Gill following a practice session at the Just Cricket ground on Friday.

Gill was delighted with his impressive performance during India A tour of the West Indies. “I think overall it was a good experience for me to play in West Indies. Especially the wickets were not as good as we expected. So the target was to get off that (early) period and score for my team and win matches for them.”

The Blue squad includes players like Gaekwad, who dazzled during the limited-overs leg of recent India ‘A’ tour of the Caribbean, the seasoned Ankeet Bawne and veteran Madhya Pradesh all-rounder Jalaj Saxena, who now turns out for Kerala.

Karnataka all-rounder Shreyas, who is in fine form in all three formats, will look to make the opportunity count. Kerala paceman Basil Thampi, who is yet to make his international debut but has been part of India’s T20 squad previously, will also be aiming to make a mark.

The Green squad, led by Faiz Fazal, includes a number of talented cricketers like Rahul Chahar, Dhruv Shorey, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Ishan Porel.

India discard Karun Nair, who has blown hot and cold in all formats, will be desperate to score consistently.