After losing their opening games of the Duleep Trophy 2024, both India A and India D will be looking for their first win as they face off at the Rural Development Trust Stadium in Anantapur. With the BCCI announcing the squad for the first Test between India and Bangladesh in Chennai, there has been a significant shake-up in the roster for the second round of the Duleep Trophy.
While there will be only two changes in the India D squad – Axar Patel moves to national duties and Tushar Deshpande is injured – India A will be without five first-choice players, including skipper Shubman Gill.
Mayank Agarwal will captain India A in Gill’s absence, while Karnataka quick Vidwath Kaverappa will move to India D for the second round. Kaverappa will replace Deshpande, while Nishant Sindhu will join the D squad in place of Axar. Pratham Singh, Akshay Wadkar, Shaik Rasheed, Shams Mulani, and Aaqib Khan will join the India A team.
Losing the first game wouldn’t have hurt as much as losing five capped Indian players. India A will need to make wholesale changes to their line-up. The first challenge will be team selection, followed by adapting to the playing conditions in Anantapur. India A will hope Prasidh Krishna is fit for the second game; if so, he will replace Akash Deep.
If conditions at the Rural Development Trust Stadium remain favourable, the pace trio of Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, and Avesh Khan will aim to exploit them, with their height helping them extract extra bounce from the pitch. Mulani and Tilak Varma are likely to be included in the playing XI. Who will open with Agarwal is a big question: will they go with Pratham Singh or open with a middle-order batter to accommodate someone like Shaik Rasheed or Akshay Wadkar? Only time will tell.
For India D, Saurabh Kumar is expected to be a like-for-like replacement for Axar, and Kaverappa may get a chance in place of Aditya Thakare. Under Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy, India D performed well in their first game but fell short when it mattered. Capped players like Iyer, Devdutt Padikkal, and Arshdeep Singh will be eager to make an impression before the squad for the second Test against Bangladesh is announced, alongside Agarwal, Khaleel, Avesh, Riyan Parag and Shivam Dube.
India D played way better than India A in their opening match and are more familiar with the conditions in Anantapur, having played a game there. Their team remains stable despite Axar’s departure for national duties. In contrast, India A will need to field a completely new XI compared to the team that played in Bengaluru a few days ago.