Duleep Trophy kicked off the Indian domestic season in Bengaluru and Ananthapur with India A, B, C and D in action which will see most of the Indian Test players in action with the upcoming Bangladesh Test series in the offing. The BCCI did away with the traditional zonal format for the Duleep Trophy this time around and spread more of the likely candidates in red-ball cricket for India across four different teams led by Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Since the format has changed, the points system is a bit different too. There are no semis or finals, in other words, knockouts. A team winning by an innings and 10 wickets will receive 7 points. An outright win in the fourth innings but not by 10 wickets will help a team earn six points. If a team takes the lead in the first innings but is not able to win the match will earn 3 points and the team on the other side of that first innings lead will take one point.
Points system
Innings win/10 wickets win – 7 points
Outright win – 6 points
First innings lead but not outright win – 3 points
Loss on the first innings – 1 point
Each of the four teams will take on each other once. Hence, three rounds of matches will take place. The team that finishes at the top of the table after the six games wins the trophy.
There will be some changes in squads, however, after the first round with the Test players selected for the Bangladesh series set to leave. The likes of KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal in all likelihood will be picked in the Test squad for the two-match series against Bangladesh.
