Indian Test skipper Shubman Gill, along with several other members of the side that played in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, is set to play in the 2025–26 Duleep Trophy, starting later this month, which will kick off the domestic season this year. The BCCI has made it mandatory for Indian cricket team players to feature in domestic events when there is no international cricket scheduled. This happened after India’s 3-1 loss to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under. Following the mandate, top players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma played in the Ranji Trophy after almost a decade.
Now, with Shubman Gill playing in the Duleep Trophy, the ‘right signals’ are being sent to other players, feels former India captain Sunil Gavaskar.
“It was good, therefore, to see that after the tour to Bangladesh was postponed to next year, the BCCI resisted the pressure to send a team for a white-ball series to Sri Lanka this month. By doing that, the BCCI has prioritised domestic cricket, as it means that now most, if not all, of the top players will be available to play in the Duleep Trophy tournament starting shortly,” Gavaskar wrote in a column for Sportstar.
“Shubman Gill captaining the North Zone team is a massive shot in the arm for this tournament. By being available for the tournament, the Indian skipper is sending the right signal to the other members of the team. It would have been understandable if, after a gruelling tour where five Test matches were crammed into a little over six weeks, he had opted to rest. The fast bowlers not playing is good thinking, as it has been an unusually hot summer in England, thanks to global warming, and their energies must have been expended after the untiring spells they bowled throughout the series.”
Indian wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel is set to lead Central Zone in the 2025-26 Duleep Trophy, while Rajat Patidar has been named his deputy, starting later this month, which will kick off the domestic season this year.
Gill, who scored a remarkable 754 runs in the five-Test series — the second-highest ever by an Indian in a single series after Sunil Gavaskar’s 774 in 1971 — is expected to play in North Zone’s opening clash against East Zone before leaving if picked in India’s squad for the Asia Cup.
India begin their campaign against UAE on September 10, followed by the marquee clash against Pakistan (September 14) and then will conclude their Group A campaign by taking on Oman (September 19).
The 25-year-old Gill, who took over Test captaincy following the retirements of stalwarts Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, was one of the standout performers on the England tour.
Gill led from the front, amassing 754 runs in the series — the second-highest by an Indian in a single Test series after Sunil Gavaskar’s 774 in the 1971 tour of the West Indies — as India levelled the series 2-2 for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
Gill’s appointment as North Zone skipper means he will be back in the domestic fold less than four weeks after an energy-sapping two-month overseas tour one in which all five matches went into the fifth day.
North Zone will face East Zone, while Central will take on North East Zone in the season-opening Duleep Trophy matches in Bengaluru on August 28.
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