Duleep Trophy: Iyer, Samson, Parag go into final round with point to prove

ANANTAPUR:  The likes of Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag and Rinku Singh will get another opportunity to enhance their red-ball credentials when the final round of Duleep Trophy matches begin here on Thursday.

No knockout games are scheduled for the season opening event and the team with maximum points will lift the trophy. With nine points from two games, India C sit at the top of the points table, followed by India B (7), India A (6) and India D (0).

Table leaders India C, captained by Ruturaj Gaikwad, will take on Mayank Agarwal led India A, while Abhimanyu Easwaran led India B will face India D, whose captain is under-pressure Iyer.

After being ignored for the Bangladesh series, Iyer had a point to prove but he has not been able to lead from the front thus far in the competition. With his team yet to earn a point in the tournament, he will be fired up to put an inspiring performance.

The performance of India D batter Samson and pacer Arshdeep Singh will also be tracked by the selectors. In the India B camp, Rinku will be aiming to get big runs after low returns in the previous game.

In the India A versus India C contest, the selectors will be expecting more runs from Agarwal, Parag and Sai Sudharsan. Parag has batted confidently thus far but needs to stay longer in the middle.

Pacer Prasidh Krishna, making a comeback from injury in the previous round, would be looking to log in a significant number of overs while Shams Mulani will be fancying another match-winning effort in the prevailing conditions.

Ishan Kishan, who made a memorable return to red ball cricket by scoring a hundred for India C, will need another epic knock to garner more attention from the selectors.

Squads:

India A squad: Mayank Agarwal (C), Riyan Parag, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat, Pratham Singh, Akshay Wadkar, SK Rasheed, Shams Mulani, Aaqib Khan.

India B squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK), Suyash Prabhudessai, Rinku Singh, Himanshu Mantri (WK).

India C squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (WK), Ishan Kishan, B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Gaurav Yadav, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (WK), Sandeep Warrier.

India D squad: Shreyas lyer (C), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (WK), Saurabh Kumar, Sanju Samson (WK), Nishant Sindhu, Vidwath Kaverappa.