The decision to change both teams, which the BCCI announced on Wednesday (September 7), was taken after consulting the team management to prepare for India’s forthcoming season, which includes 13 Test matches from September to March. “Whenever the Indian players are available and after the management has assessed their work load, they will have a little choice over the matter”.
Advertisement
Apart from Cheteshwar Pujara, who is already part of the India Blue side, the selectors have included Shikhar Dhawan, Stuart Binny and Amit Mishra in the India Red squad and Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja in the India Blue squad.
“None of the pacers has been asked to pay in the Duleep final because the team management knows who has had what kind of work load”, the source explained.
They had repeated many times that the biggest India players, including MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, would be participating in the tournament as part of the exercise to test the feasibility of the experiment. Rohit and Jadeja will play for India Blue, led by Gautam Gambhir.
India Blue will be reinforced with the inclusion of batsman Rohit Sharma and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
Advertisement
But Gambhir did not allow a follow on and instead came out to bat as the India Blue side added another 298 runs in their second essay with notable contributions from man of the match Agarwal (58), Gambhir (59), Dinesh Karthik (57) and Jackson (79). With the ball, India Green leg-spinners Shreyas Gopal excelled, taking four wickets while left-armer Pragyan Ojha claimed three before he was hit on the head while fielding. With nearly 1500 runs scored in the match, a draw was always on the cards as the Gautam Gambhir-led India Blue side fixed its date with Yuvraj Singh’s India Red for the summit clash from September 10 to 14 at the same venue. They had been shot out for 237 in the first innings.
