Duleep Trophy 2016: Team of the tournament
The 2016 Duleep Trophy will go down in history as one of the most iconic to have ever been played. There were plenty of experiments conducted this year, they did away with the ‘zones’ for the teams, and instead there were three teams – India Blue, Red, and Green that contested for the title.
Apart from this, for the first time in first-class cricket history in India, matches were played under lights and the pink ball was used. The setting for all the games was the Greater Noida Sports Complex and there was a decent turnout for all of the matches.
Fans got to witness many of their stars put in exemplary performances as players fought hard to try and impress the selectors ahead of the long home Test season.
India Blue, captained by Gautam Gambhir lined up against India Red, captained by Yuvraj Singh in the final and Gambhir’s boys turned out victorious.
Here, we pick the team of the tournament:
1) Abhinav Mukund – India Red
Abhinav Mukund was in imperious form in the first game of the tournament against India Green, where he recorded scores of 77 and 169 to help his team record a massive 219 run victory. His performances were of paramount importance as it gave his team an almost unassailable lead and ensured an easy passage to the final.
He would not have a chance to impress in the second game with rain playing spoilsport and was retired hurt in the final innings of the final game, which proved to be a dampner for him. But he did enough overall to merit a spot at the top of the order.
The stylish left-hander from Chennai is only 26 years old and is certainly knocking on the door of the selectors after this performance.