Ravindra Jadeja released from Duleep Trophy without explanation, BCCI cites illness for Siraj and Umran Malik's absence

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Tuesday that three changes have been made to the squads for the upcoming 2024-25 Duleep Trophy. Ravindra Jadeja, the India all-rounder, has been released from the Team B squad for the domestic red-ball tournament. Additionally, fast bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Umran Malik have been excluded from the squad due to illness.

All the India regulars and some emerging talent were named for the Duleep Trophy, which will begin on September 5, with the tournament slated to help BCCI's selection committee in picking the squad for India's upcoming Test match series against Bangladesh (two games in September), New Zealand (three games in October) and Australia (five games in December).

Ravindra Jadeja, too, was named by the selectors for the Duleep Trophy, which will mark the beginning of India's domestic red-ball season. However, he was released from the squad for the opening round with BCCI revealing no reason. The board named no replacement for Jadeja.

Siraj and Malik, on the other hand, were ruled out of the opening round owing to illness. BCCI expect the two pacers to be fit for the remaining fixtures of the tournament, which will be played till September 24. The selectors, however, named replacements for both the fast bowlers, with Navdeep Saini replacing Siraj in Team B, while Gaurav Yadav will replace Malik in Team C.

Navdeep Saini handed shot at redemption

Saini, who played just two Test matches for India in the historic 2020/21 series win in Australia, has been handed another shot at redemption with a Duleep Trophy call-up. He was earlier part of the three India A matches last season - two against England Lions at home and one in South Africa. He only picked one wicket across those matches.

Gaurav is a fast bowler from Madhya Pradesh, who later switched to Puducherry last season, and grabbed headlines with a 41-wicket Ranji Trophy season. The tally, second-best in the tournament, came in just seven matches at 14.58, with five five-wicket hauls and one 10-wicket match haul.

The revised squads of the four teams for the first round of the tournament are as below -

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

India B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK).

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

India D: Shreyas lyer (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.

Note: Nitish Kumar Reddy’s participation in the Duleep Trophy is subject to fitness.

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