Kohli & Sharma are out of the Squads for Duleep Trophy 2024

The BCCI has revealed the squads for the 2024 edition of the Duleep Trophy, set to commence on September 5. Contrary to widespread speculation, neither Virat Kohli nor Rohit Sharma feature in any of the squads.

Announced on August 14, the squads for the first round of matches include prominent players such as Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, and Shreyas Iyer. However, the absence of India's Test and ODI captain Rohit Sharma, along with veteran batter Virat Kohli, raised eyebrows, given the buzz surrounding their potential inclusion.

The Duleep Trophy, traditionally played in a zonal format involving six regions of India, has always been a key platform for red-ball prospects to shine. This season, however, the BCCI has opted to move away from the zonal structure. Instead, the tournament will feature four teams: India A, India B, India C, and India D.

Here are the squads for the first round of the Duleep Trophy 2024:

Team A Squad:

Shubman Gill (C), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat.

Team B Squad:

Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK).

Team C Squad:

Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Baba Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Umran Malik, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (WK), Sandeep Warrier.

Team D Squad:

Shreyas Iyer (C), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (WK), Saurabh Kumar.

This revamped format and the strong squad line-ups ensure a competitive start to the domestic season, with young talents and experienced campaigners getting a chance to stake their claim for upcoming international assignments.