India Red face India Green in Duleep Trophy domestic season opener

Dindigul (Tamil Nadu), Aug 16: Defending champions India Red will take on India Green in the opener of the 57th Duleep Trophy at the NPR College ground here on Friday, marking the start of the 2018-19 domestic cricket season in the country.

India Blue side is the third team in the competition that will be played under lights with the pink ball. 

The tournament will see three round-robin four-day matches followed by the final, that will be played from September 4 over five days.

The India Red side will be led by local boy and discarded Test opener Abhinav Mukund, who will be looking to make the most of the chances, and present his case to the BCCI selectors, given the poor form of the India openers in the ongoing England tour. 

His opposite number in the India Green side, Parthiv Patel will also be aiming to make his way back to the Test side, considering the absence of regular Test keeper Wriddhiman Saha due to injury and the dismal performance of Dinesh Karthik in the opening two Tests of the five-match rubber against England.

Besides the two captains, the selectors will also keep a close watch on the young guns on either side. 

While the India Red side boasts of youngsters like Baba Aparajith, Ishan Porel, Abhimanyu Mithun and Rajneesh Gurbani, among others, the India Green squad has a few well-known names in Ashoke Dinda, Ankit Rajpoot, Baba Indrajith, Karn Sharma and Jalaj Saxena, among others.

The India Blue side will be spearheaded by Vidarbha captain Faiz Fazal and includes the discarded India pace duo of Dhawal Kulkarni and Jaydev Unadkat, along with youngsters in Basil Thampi, Swapnil Singh and Dhruv Shorey, among others.

Squads:
India Red: Abhinav Mukund (Captain) R.Sanjay, Ashutosh Singh, Baba Aparajith, Writtick Chatterjee, B.Sandeep, Akshay Wadkar(WK), Shahbaz Nadeem, Mihir Hirwani, Parvez Rasool, Rajneesh Gurbani, A Mithun, Ishan Porel, Y.Prithvi Raj.

India Green: Parthiv Patel (Captain & WK), Prashant Chopra, Priyank Panchal, Sudeep Chatterjee, Gurkeerat Mann, Baba Indrajith, V.P.Solanky, Jalaj Saxena, Karn Sharma, Vikas Mishra, K.Vignesh, Ankit Rajpoot, Ashoke Dinda, Atith Sheth.

India Blue: Faiz Fazal (Captain), Abhishek Raman, Anmolpreet Singh, Ganesh Satish, N.Gangta, Dhruv Shorey, K.S. Bharat (WK), Akshay Wakhare, Saurav Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Basil Thampi, B Ayappa, Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni.