Deodhar Trophy 2018: Chance for three Indian stars to make a comeback
After a month-long piquant cricket contest among 37 teams, Mumbai and Delhi made it to the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy and will clash for the title tomorrow at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
Both these teams played some phenomenal cricket throughout the tourney and are in a bid to end on top. In the semis, Gambhir led Delhi pipped Jharkhand in a thriller while as Mumbai cruised past Hyderabad by 60 runs in a rain-hit encounter.
It would be a final to watch out for as on one side it would be Gambhir, Navdeep Saini, Unmukt Chand playing for Delhi and Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer for Mumbai.
The tourney witnessed some noteworthy performances and selectors already drafted out the squads for the Deodhar Trophy- a one-day tournament featuring India 'A', 'B' and 'C' teams. Dinesh Karthik, Shreyas Iyer, and Ajinkya Rahane have been appointed as skippers of these teams and watchful players like Suresh Raina, Ravi Ashwin, Prithvi Shaw are also part of the squads.
As the tournament would be keenly noticed by the national selectors, it would be a chance for new faces to make a mark while equally important for old warhorses to stimulate and get a national comeback call-up.
In this piece, we have taken note of three players who can use the Deodhar Trophy for re-entering the national team:
#1 Suresh Raina
Once the limited-overs specialist for Indi, Suresh Raina, after being out of the team for a long time made his comeback earlier this year during England ODIs. But, he went unimpressed, scoring 47 runs in three matches.
Raina has over 5500 ODI runs at an average of 35 including five centuries and 36 fifties. He bats in the middle-order and India has been lately struggling in that position. So, Deodhar Trophy would be an opportunity for him to re-appear in the Indian colours.
He made three consecutive fifties for Uttar Pradesh in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, owing to which he made it to India 'C' team.