Picking a combined India A and India D playing 11 for Duleep Trophy 2024 ft. Shreyas Iyer and Riyan Parag
When the squads for the 2024 Duleep Trophy were initially announced, teams India 'A' and India 'B' seemed much stronger on paper than India 'C' and India 'D'. However, in hindsight, that was a clear strategy from the selectors.
'A' and 'B' played against each other in the first round and then a lot of their best players for the second, with India's senior men's team picking them for the home series against Bangladesh. Now, all four teams look quite evenly matched.
Below, we have continued the fun activity we began ahead of the first round by picking a combined playing 11 of the teams going head-to-head against each other. This is for Mayank Agarwal-led India 'A' and Shreyas Iyer's India 'D', chosen from their playing 11s for the clash at Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh.
Top-order: Mayank Agarwal, Atharva Taide and Devdutt Padikkal
Mayank was the first wicket to fall on Thursday when India 'D' won the toss and opted to bowl first. He has not been at his best in any format for a while, whereas 2024 has been one of his weakest years in the sport for a while.
Still, he remains one of the best red-ball openers in India and will make this 11 ahead of his partner Pratham Singh, who has just one first-class hundred so far. Mayank's experience of 102 first-class games and the ability to dictate the tempo of any innings with big knocks is a set of skills that any side would gladly take up.
He'll be partnered by India 'D''s Atharva Taide, the promising 24-year-old left-hander, who has also featured for Punjab Kings in the IPL. He bats with a tangible flair and was the 16th highest run-scorer in the last Ranji Trophy season with 584 runs at an average of 41.71, including two centuries and as many fifties.
Devdutt Padikkal of India 'D' would be the perfect left-handed number three to follow them. He was one of the best batters in the last Ranji Trophy, smashing three centuries for his 556 runs in just six innings. He would take preference over India 'A''s Tilak Verma, who's an all-rounder but behind in batting experience.
Middle-order: Shreyas Iyer (c), Ricky Bhui (wk) and Riyan Parag
The middle order of this team is full of flair and attacking intent. India 'A' captain Shreyas will come at four and will also lead this side, thanks to his better trophy cabinet and more assuredness on the field than Mayank.
Shreyas doesn't have a ton of recent Ranji Trophy experience but he was a sure shot in India's Test 11 till last year and showed that he has still got it with his attacking 54 in the previous Duleep Trophy game against India 'C'.
Ricky Bhui, Andhra Pradesh's stand-in captain and the highest run-scorer of the 2023 Ranji Trophy, will be the spine of this batting line-up. He has that savior knack in him and can notch big knocks in the most difficult situations.
Although Sanju Samson and Kumar Kushagra are better wicketkeepers than him, they have more to prove as first-class batters still. Akshay Wadkar, Vidarbha's captain, is quite similar to Bhui in terms of style with more consistency but he hasn't been selected in the India 'A' 11, which affects his stature.
Riyan Parag would be the number six. He bats higher up the order in the format but in this team, his attacking intent, ability to hit boundaries at will, and all-round skills, would make this position better for him and his team.
All-rounders: Saurabh Kumar and Tanush Kotian
The two all-rounders are another strength of this team. Left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar and right-arm orthodox bowler Tanush Kotian will round up the spin options while also adding batting depth as Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja do for Team India.
Kumar has been quite close to India's 11 a couple of times, mostly due to his bowling experience (304 wickets for Uttar Pradesh at a stunning average of 24.43) but he also has over 2000 runs in First-Class cricket to his name, including two centuries.
Kotian, meanwhile, averages over 40 with the bat and 26.56 with the ball in his short 27-matches-long career and scored his first century in the last Ranji Trophy. Both are particularly excellent in hitting the big shots against spin.
Bowlers: Vidwath Kaverappa, Khaleel Ahmed, Prasidh Krishna
To make things worse for any team that comes up against this hypothetical side, the fast-bowling options available are as good as any. We don't need more all-rounders so the promising but still youthful Harshit Rana isn't in the team.
Karnataka duo of Vidwath Kaverappa (India 'D') and Prasidh Krishna (India 'A') are obvious choices against the likes of Aaqib Khan ((India 'A') and Aditya Thakare (India 'D'). They both have pace, and height and can hurry the batters up.
Vidwath can take the new ball while Prasidh is much better as a first-change. The latter has spent a lot of time on the sidelines due to injuries but with the Australian tour set for later in the year, the national selectors would be watching him closely.
For the left-arm quick option, Khaleel Ahmed was in direct competition with Arshdeep Singh. Both haven't played enough red-ball domestic cricket to be judged on numbers and bring similar skills and experience to the fore.
However, Khaleel just pips him for the spot because he looked in a much better rhythm for his spells of 2/54 & 3/69 in the last Duleep Trophy game.