Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin among names to feature in newly formatted Deodhar Trophy

The Deodhar Trophy this year is set to have a slight change in the format with Ajinkya Rahane and Ravichandran Ashwin set to feature in the competition which would begin on October 23.

The tournament this time would not have the Vijay Hazare Trophy champions and would continue to be a three-team competition. India A, B and C would take on each other with the captains of the sides being Dinesh Karthik, Shreyas Iyer and Rahane respectively.

“It was decided during the technical committee meeting of BCCI that there will be three teams instead of one being Vijay Hazare champions,” BCCI General Manager of Cricket Operations said, as quoted by PTI.

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Rahane and Ashwin aren’t surprise inclusions in the tournament, given the fact that they aren’t a part of India’s plans in limited overs’ cricket.

Prithvi Shaw coming on the back of a successful debut series against the West Indies would play for India A under Karthik.

Karthik would have to make a statement or two after he was left out of India’s squad for the upcoming series against the West Indies. The Tamil Nadu cricketer would lead a side that would have the likes of Mohammad Siraj, Karun Nair, Siddharth Kaul, Krunal Pandya and state teammate Ashwin.

The selection of the three teams reflects the fact that players who have done well in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy have been rewarded by the selectors. An example of that is Varun Aaron who would play for India B, having names like Shahbaz Nadeem, Hanuma Vihari, Jaydev Unadkat and Mayank Agarwal-who was a part of India’s Test squad against the West Indies.

The Rahane-led India C side would comprise of names like Shubman Gill, Navdeep Saini, Ishan Kishan, Washington Sundar and Rajneesh Gurbani.

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 Roy, Navdeep Saini, Rajneesh Gurbani, Umar Nazir.

Image credit-(Ajinkya Rahane)- Free Press Journal

Image credit-( Ravichandran Ashwin)- The Indian Express