The latest edition of the grand opera that is Indian domestic season will begin on Wednesday with the Duleep Trophy, giving the experienced and aspirants a chance to reemphasize their red ball chops. (More Cricket News)
In the quarterfinals, Central Zone will face East Zone at Alur while North Zone will look to🐬 tame North East Zone at the M Chinnaswamy Stad𝄹ium.
The winners will have a f🍌ace-of💛f with West Zone and South Zone, direct entrants into the last four stage as champions and finalists respectively last season, early next month.
While the immediate aim of the teams remains adva🍌ncing deep into the knockouts, the selectors will cast a keen eye on the performance of some fresh names over the next fortnight as India gradually move into the transit💞ion phase.
It is clear that India will need more choices to look into as they embrace a new WTC cycl🌠e next month with the tour to the West Indies and Duleep Trophy is a good platform to add a few to the list.
Rinku Singh might not be a fresh name, couﷺrtesy his IPL exploits for Kolkata Knight Riders but as far as red ball cricket is concerned the UP left-hander still ꦇoffers a bit of unfamiliarity.
But his body of work in the longer format is absolutely stunning. Rinku, who will be seen in the line-up of Central Zone, had amassed 442 runs from 7 Ranji Trophy matches last season, averagi🥀ng over 62.
His overall first-c🧔la⛎ss record too is among the best of current times – 2875 runs from 40 matches at 59.89 with 7 hundreds and 19 fifties. If Rinku can replicate that performance here then India might just have another exciting option to consider in future.
Then we have Abhimanyu Easwaran to watch out for. The East Zone captain is one of the oldest members among the contenders in batting. At 27, the Bengal batsman is a consistent ဣperformer in domesti🌠c circles and for India A.
Having made his debut back in 2013, Easwaran has 6556 runs from 87 first-class match♏es and he will be eyeing some big games to back his claim for a spot in India whites.
Among the bowler🦩s too, there are a number of claimants for an India spot. The 29-year-old Mukesh Kumar, who has already made his India cut, features prominently in the list of players wh🌸o could carry the country's pace fortunes into the future, a reputation that is built on some solid stats in domestic circuit.
In the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy season, Mukesh had bagged 22 wickets from 5 matches while forming a formidable trio along with ꦜAkash Deep and Ishan Porel for 𒆙Bengal.
Mukesh remains a consistent performe🃏r in India A matches as well, grabbing 18 wickets so far at a creditable average of 17.5. He will be eager to fine tune his skills before leaving for the West Indies for Test and ODI tours.
Avesh Khan's outing too will be watched from close quarters as the Madhya Pradesh🐲 right-arm pacer had 38 scalps from 8 Ranji Trophy matches in the previous season.
Apart🍨 from the obvious contenders, the tournament is also a chance for fringe names such as Shivam Mavi, who will lead Central Zone, Akash Deep and Porel to keep themselves in the mix.
Heftier names such as Cheteshwar Pujara, Suryakumar Yadav, Hanuma Vihari, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington𓂃 Sundar etc will join the caravan next month, brimming with priorities of varying proportions.
But until they add more gravitas to the tournament, it's time to focus on the p🎃ossible m༒antle holders of future.
Matches (June 28-July 1): North Zone vs North East Zone, Chinnaswamy Stadium; Central Z🔯one vs East 🍌Zone, Alur. Matches start at 9.30 AM.
