Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul in focus as Duleep Rd 1 begins

The presence of a plethora of current superstars at least for the first round of matches beginning on Thursday has restored much of the lost sheen to a tournament that occupied pride of place in the Indian domestic calendar but had become something of a formality over the last several yearsEye on Test seriesThis yearrsquos Duleep Trophy to be contested by four teams handpicked by Ajit Agarkarrsquos national selection panel is the first tournament since the BCCI made participation in domestic competitions mandatory for players not involved in international action It assumes added significance ahead of a packed schedule for India who will play 10 Tests five at home and five in Australia between September 19 and January 7Also ReadParis Paralympics 2024 Indias medal tally goes up to 21 registers best ever medal haul at GamesIndiarsquos last Test was in Dharamsala in the first week of March most players have played very little redball cricket in the interim and the first set of fourday games to be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here and in Anantapur will allow them to ease back into longformat mode Test and ODI skipper Rohit Sharma Virat Kohli Jasprit Bumrah and R Ashwin were exempted from playing when the squads were announced on August 14 and have since been joined on the sidelines by Mohammed Siraj and Ravindra JadejaThe Chinnaswamy outing will mark the return to firstclass cricket for the first time since December 2022 of Rishabh Pant the ebullient wicketkeeper who was involved in a terrible singlecar accident just two days before the dawn of 2023 Pant has played both whiteball formats since his international comeback this June Dhruv Jurel acquitted himself with great credit during his three Test appearances against England but Pant still holds the aces given his exploits in the fiveday game among other thingsBattle for middleorder spotAgarkar and his fellow selectors will look for both form and fitness over the next few days before the team for the Bangladesh Tests is named There is a scramble for a solitary middleorder berth in the playing XI with the pedigreed KL Rahul and the effervescent Sarfaraz Khan who made three halfcenturies in five innings against England among the principal contenders Shreyas Iyer has a point to prove after being axed following a series of poor scores in Test cricket while this is a great chance for spinners to stake their claim for life after Ashwin and Jadeja which may not be too far into the future