Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli & Other Test Probables Likely to Play in Duleep Trophy Ahead of Bangladesh Series

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Team India senior stars Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli likely to play in the upcoming Duleep Trophy, which is scheduled to start from September 5 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

According to reports, Rohit and Kohli may feature in the Duleep Trophy with an eye on preparations for next month's Test series against Bangladesh. Other Test stars also have been asked to play in the domestic tournament, which was originally slated to start in Anantapur from September 5.

While CricBuzz reports that Rohit and Kohli have been given an option to choose if they want to play, Indian Express report said the duo may feature either in the first or second match of the tournament depending on the camp planned by BCCI.

The likes of Shubman Gill, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin are expeced to participate in the Duleep Trophy. KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal are also likely to feature.

Mohammed Siraj and the other Test regulars are also expecred to be picked, while Jasprit Bumrah will be exempted from domestic duties. Hardik Pandya, who has stopped playing red ball cricket, as well as Mohammed Shami is also expected to miss the tournament.

Meanwhile Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan, who were dropped from the BCCI central contract, are also expected to be picked for the tournament. Iyer already returned to the national team set up in the last ODI series in Sri Lanka, while Kishan has not featured for India since being dropped from the annual contract.

The Indian cricketers last played a Test earlier this year in March. So, the Duleep Trophy could give them some good match practice ahead of the two-Test series against Bangladesh, scheduled to start on September 19 in Chennai.

The Duleep Trophy will be played by India A, India B, India C and India D teams, and Ajit Agarkar's selection panel will pick the four squads for the tournament, which will see the teams play in multi-day matches.

Duleep Trophy which was earlier played by six different zones, will be contested in a new format this season as there will be no knockout games and the tournament that concludes on September 22 will decide the winner based on which team tops the standings after the league phase.