Duleep Trophy: Chance for established and aspirants to underline red ball credentials

The latest edition of the grand opera that is Indian domestic season will begin here on Wednesday with the Duleep Trophy, giving the experienced and aspirants a chance to reemphasize their red ball chops.

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 Stadium.

The winners will have a face-off 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 advancing 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 transition phase.

It is clear that India will need more choices to look into as they embrace a new WTC cycle 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, courtesy his IPL exploits for Kolkata Knight Riders but as far as red ball cricket is concerned the UP left-hander still offers 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, averaging over 62.

His overall first-class 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 performer in domestic circles and for India A.

Having made his debut back in 2013, Easwaran has 6556 runs from 87 first-class matches and he will be eyeing some big games here to back his claim for a spot in India whites.

Among the bowlers 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 who 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 Akash Deep and Ishan Porel for Bengal.

Mukesh remains a consistent performer 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, Washington 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 possible mantle holders of future.

Matches (June 28-July 1): North Zone vs North East Zone, Chinnaswamy Stadium; Central Zone vs East Zone, Alur. Matches start at 9.30 AM.