Duleep Trophy: Rishabh Pant In Focus On Red-Ball Return; Selectors Eye Backup Options

Rishabh Pant's red-ball return will be closely monitored but the national selectors will also trace suitable backup options to frontline stars when Duleep Trophy, which preludes an important Test season, begins across Bengaluru and Anantapur on Thursday. Pant, who returned to white-ball formats after that horrific car crash, is yet to play in a longer-duration match. His last red-ball outing was against Bangladesh in December 2022. Now, he will turn out for Abhimanyu Easwaran-led Team B against Shubman Gill-captained Team A at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Satisfying his outings in the shorter versions were, but this four-day tournament offers him a unique challenge – batting and ‘keeping for an undefined number of overs.

Pant is the designated stumper in Team B, and it is evident that the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel is intending to take a deep look into his role as the wicketkeeper-batter in a season that will culminate with the World Test Championship Final at the Lord's next June.

But that is just one piece of the puzzle as other worthy contenders are there for the wicketkeeper-batter's slot.

The front-runner is Dhruv Jurel (Team A), who was impressive in his debut series against England earlier this year.

Then there's Ishan Kishan, who will play for Team D which is marshalled by Shreyas Iyer at Anantapur.

Kishan, though a long shot, will be eager to use Duleep Trophy as a platform to stake his claim for an India return after an unsavoury train of incidents saw him losing the BCCI central contract in the current cycle.

The return of veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the Bangladesh series will gobble up two batting slots along with Gill at No. 3.

Hence, there will be a jostle between KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer,