Duleep Trophy: Why are Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli not playing the tournament?

The BCCI on Wednesday announced the teams for the first round of the Duleep Trophy 2024-2025. Shubman Gill, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shreyas Iyer have been handed captaincy for the tournament. The tournament will start on September 5, 2024.

Duleep Trophy: Why are Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli not playing the tournament?

There were speculations that some senior players including Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma would be seen playing in the Duleep Trophy. However, the names of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah did not appear in the team. Now BCCI secretary Jay Shah has told why Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are not playing domestic tournaments before the Test series against Bangladesh.

Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary Jay Shah has now said that our priority is that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli remain fit for the five-match Test series to be held in Australia later this year. Jay Shah said, 'Everyone else is playing except them. You should appreciate it.' It is worth noting that Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer are playing in the Duleep tournament.

The BCCI secretary said, 'We should not force players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to play in the Duleep Trophy. They will be at risk of getting injured. If you have noticed, not every international player plays domestic cricket in Australia and England. We have to treat the players with respect.'

Let us tell you that next month the Bangladesh team will tour India. During this, 2 Test matches will be played between the two teams. Rishabh Pant is playing the Duleep Trophy. In such a situation, there is every possibility that he may get a chance in the Test series against Bangladesh. Pant has been away from Test cricket for a long time. He has not played any Test since being a victim of a road accident in late 2022.