Rinku Singh set to play for India B in 2024 Duleep Trophy; national squad announcement leads to widespread changes
Indian batter Rinku Singh, who was not initially named in any of the Duleep Trophy squads will play for India B, with several players leaving to prepare for the upcoming Test series against Bangladesh. The departure of the first-team players, coupled with the ongoing injury crisis has forced the selectors to call up candidates who narrowly missed out on a spot the first time around.
Rinku is currently leading the Meerut Mavericks in the UP T20 League. His last red-ball outing came during the 2024 Ranji Trophy clash between Uttar Pradesh and Andhra. He scored 26 runs off 36 deliveries in the drawn contest.
Since the IPL, Rinku has been involved with the Indian T20I side. The left-handed batter was a traveling reserve for the 2024 T20 World Cup and played the away tours against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.
According to a report by ESPNcricinfo, India B are set to lose the services of the left-handed trio of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, and Yash Dayal, with the latter receiving his maiden call-up. Along with Rinku, the other new additions to the India B side ahead of the second round are Suyash Prabhudesai and Himanshu Mantri.
Although India B's Sarfaraz Khan has been named in the Test squad for the Bangladesh series, he is set to play the second round of the Duleep Trophy. India B's clash against India C is scheduled to end on September 15, while the first India-Bangladesh Test will commence on September 19 in Chennai.
India A and India D also heavily affected following Test squad announcement
India A have already named Mayank Agarwal as the new skipper following Shubman Gill's call-up to the main squad. They will also be without KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Akash Deep for the second round. The replacements for the same are - Pratam Singh, Akshay Wadkar, Shaik Rasheed, Shams Mulani, and Pulkit Narang.
Meanwhile, all-rounder Axar Patel will be replaced by Nishant Sindhu in the India D squad, and Tushar Deshpande will be unavailable due to an injury. Vidwath Kaverappa, who could not find a place in the tournament opener for India A, has been slotted into the India D squad for the second round.
Reported squads for the second round of the 2024 Duleep Trophy
India A: Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat, Pratam Singh, Akshay Wadkar, Shaik Rasheed, Shams Mulani, Pulkit Narang.
India B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt), Sarfaraz Khan, Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (wk), Rinku Singh, Suyash Prabhudesai, Himanshu Mantri.
India C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (wk), B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Gaurav Yadav, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (wk), Sandeep Warrier.
India D: Shreyas Iyer (capt), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (wk), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (wk), Saurabh Kumar, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Nishant Sindhu.