Duleep Trophy 2017-18: Schedule And Squads Announced

Four days after eliminating Duleep Trophy 2017-18 off the Indian domestic calendar, The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was forced to reverse its decision and restore the Pink Ball Cricket. Thanks to the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), the board was asked to retain the tournament in the domestic calendar as it has been an “important” competition.

However, the decision to restore Duleep Trophy 2017-18 represents a dramatic shift in BCCI’s position as on 25 August a board official said that the tournament was put off considering India’s packed calendar which will see the Virat Kohli-led team play 20 limited-overs matches from September to December. He also added that the Duleep Trophy 2017-18 wasn’t a necessary annual fixture.

But, amidst all the confusion one of India’s most prestigious and 56-year-old domestic tournament, Duleep Trophy, will be played this season, and BCCI has also released the team sheets as well as tournament itinerary. The First-Class event featuring the pink ball will be played at Kanpur and Lucknow from September 7 to 29.

Duleep Trophy 2017-18: Schedule And Squads

A total of three teams will participate in the tournament, and Suresh Raina, Abhinav Mukund, and Murali Vijay have been selected as the captains of India Blue, India Red and India Green, respectively.

Here is the full list of players of each team for Duleep Trophy 2017-18

India Blue: Suresh Raina (captain), Samit Gohel, KS Bharat, Manoj Tiwary, AR Easwaran, Ishan Kishan (wk), Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Bharghav Bhatt, KM Gandhi, Ankit Rajpoot, S Kamat and Jaydev Unadkat.

India Red: Abhinav Mukund (captain), Priyank Panchal, Sudip Chatterjee, Ambati Rayudu, Ishank Jaggi, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant (wk), K Gowtham, Baba Indrajith, Karn Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Basil Thampi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rahul Singh and CV Milind.

India Green: Murali Vijay (captain), R Samarth, P Chopra, Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Ankit Bawne, Shahbaz Nadeem, Parthiv Patel (c & wk), Parvez Rasool, Mohammad Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Sidharth Kaul, Mayank Dagar, Nitin Saini and Aniket Chaudhary.

Duleep Trophy 2017-18 Schedule

Match 1: India Red vs India Green, September 7-10

Match 2: India Red vs India Blue, September 13-16

Match 3: India Green vs India Blue, September 19-22

Duleep Trophy 2017-18 Final: September September 25-29

Just like last year, Duleep Trophy 2017-18 will also feature 45 cricketers and be played with the pink ball under floodlights.

Two matches of the tournament, including the final, are scheduled to be played at the Ekana International Stadium in Lucknow while the legendary Green Park stadium will host the remaining two matches.