Duleep Trophy 2019: Domestic Cricket Season Opener; Shubman Gill to Lead India Blue

Duleep Trophy, a first-class domestic tournament is named after the great-nephew of Ranjitsinhji - Shri Duleepsinhji. Known for his footwork, wrist and late cut, Duleepsinhji was a gifted cricketer or precisely, one of India’s most successful players in the pre-independence era.

India's most awaited 2019-20 domestic season will get underway with esteemed Duleep Trophy from August 17. First played in 1961-62, this will be the 58th edition of Duleep Trophy where three domestic teams namely India Red, India Green and India Blue will lock horns against each other, over a round-robin four-day format.

India Blue, the defending champion who defeated India Red in the finals by an innings and 187 runs last season will kick off the campaign against each other in the tournament's opener. Unlike last year where all the matches were played under the lights with Pink ball, no such provision is in place this time.

Duleep Trophy (Image Courtesy: BCCI)

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What may come as a surprise to many, the 19-years old, Shubman Gill is all set to make his captaincy debut for India Blue. Vidarbha Star, Faiz Fazal to lead India Green while India A regular, Priyank Panchal to captain India Red.

Shubman Gill has been in a fabulous form in recent time. An unbeaten double century (204*) in two first-class games and three half-centuries (69, 77, 62) in four List-A games against West Indies A, speak volumes of his calibre.

A great bunch of individuals have been selected as some of them have directly come from India A tour of West Indies and are in a good nick. Jayant Yadav, Anmolpreet Singh, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Gopal, Axar Patel, all of whom have featured in at least one format for India A in the West Indies A tour, are there.

The squads for Duleep Trophy 2019 are as follows:

India Green: Faiz Fazal (c), Priyam Garg, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Akshath Reddy, Rahul Chahar, Akshdeep Nath, Dhruv Shorey, Ankit Rajpoot, Siddhesh Lad, Jayant Yadav, Akshay Wadkar (wk), Ishan Porel, Ajesh Mohanty Tanveer-ul-Haq, and Miling Kumar.

India Blue: Shubman Gill (c), Shreyas Gopal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ricky Bhui, Jalaj Saxena, Ankeet Bhawne, Snell Patel (wk), Saurabh Kumar, Rajat Patidar, Aniket Choudhary, Anmolpreet Singh, Diwesh Pathania, Tushar Deshpande, Ashutosh Amar and Basil Thampi.

India Red: Priyank Panchal (c), Axar Patel, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ronit More, Ishan Kishan (wk), Karun Nair, Mahipal Lomror, Varun Aaron, Jaydev Unadkat, Aditya Sarwate, Akhsay Wakhare, Hapreet Singh Bhatia, Sandeep Warrier and Ankit Walsi.

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Duleep Trophy 2019, Full Schedule, Matches and Timings:

Match 1: India Blue Vs India Green (17 - 20 Aug) (09:30 IST (04:00 GMT))

Match 2: India Red Vs India Blue (23 - 26 Aug) (09:30 IST (04:00 GMT))

Match 3: India Red Vs India Green (29 Aug - 1 Sep) (09:30 IST (04:00 GMT))

Final: TBD Vs TBD (4-8 Sep) (09:30 IST (04:00 GMT))

Star Sports will telecast the final of Duleep Trophy.