Published: Oct 22, 2018, 07:36 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 22, 2018, 07:35 PM (IST)
India internationals Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin and Dinesh Karthik will seek to revive their ODI career in what could be their final chance to stake claim for the ICC World Cup 2019’s India squad with the Deodhar Trophy, scheduled to start on Tuesday.
While young guns Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill have the opportunity to put their names in the hat for more opportunities in the one-day format for India A and eventually the national team.
The new format of the Deodhar Trophy this year means champions Mumbai will not be featuring, instead it will be three teams – India A, India B and India C vying for the title.
Ashwin, part of India A, has not played a limited overs game for India since July 2017, while his partner Ravindra Jadeja made a stellar comeback in the Asia Cup and now seems sure shot for the World Cup.
Rahane, India’s vice-captain in Tests, leading India C, will look for a big tournament with the bat. He last represented India in the ODIs against South Africa in January this year. With the No.4 spot still up for grabs, a lot is riding on this tournament for Rahane.
After giving away his spot in the West Indies ODIs to Rishabh Pant, Karthik, the hero of the Nidahas Trophy, will be looking to make the headlines by leading India A to the title both with the bat and as captain.
Shreyas Iyer has had a good 2018 and will look to continue his fine form leading India B while Mayank Agarwal (India B), who was part of the Indian squad for the West Indies Test series, will have to go back to what he does best, score truckload of runs to push his case for an ODI selection. Also in India B is Varun Aaron, on a comeback trail, and Jaydev Unadkat.
Shaw would aim to strengthen his case for the ODIs after good run in the Vijay Hazare, so will be his Under-19 deputy Gill, who scored 418 runs in seven matches in Vijay Hazare at 59.71.
Navdeep Saini and Rajneesh Gurbani will be the next crop of bowlers to look out for.
The tournament kick starts on Tuesday with India A taking on India B at the Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi.
Squads:
India A: Dinesh Karthik (C & WK), Prithvi Shaw, Anmolpreet Singh, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ankit Bawne, Nitish Rana, Karun Nair, Krunal Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shreyas Gopal, Shams Mulani, Mohammed Siraj, Dhawal Kulkarni, Siddarth Kaul.
India B: Shreyas Iyer (C), Mayank Agarwal, Rituraj Gaekwad, Prashant Chopra, Hanuma Vihari, Manoj Tiwary, Ankush Bains (WK), Rohit Rayudu, K Gowtham, Mayank Markande, S Nadeem, Deepak Chahar, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat.
India C: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Abhinav Mukund, Shubman Gill, Ravikumar Samarth, Suresh Raina, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (WK), Vijay Shankar, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Papu Ray, Navdeep Saini, Rajneesh Gurbani, Umar Nazir.
