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After a month-long piquant cricket contest among 37 teams, Mumbai and Delhi made it to the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy and will clash for the title tomorrow at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
Both these teams played some phenomenal cricket throughout the tourney and are in a bid to end on top. In the semis, Gambhir led Delhi pipped Jharkhand in a thriller while as Mumbai cruised past Hyderabad by 60 runs in a rain-hit encounter.
It would be a final to watch out for as on one side it would be Gambhir, Navdeep Saini, Unmukt Chand playing for Delhi and Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer for Mumbai.
The tourney witnessed some noteworthy performances and selectors already drafted out the squads for the Deodhar Trophy- a one-day tournament featuring India 'A', 'B' and 'C' teams. Dinesh Karthik, Shreyas Iyer, and Ajinkya Rahane have been appointed as skippers of these teams and watchful players like Suresh Raina, Ravi Ashwin, Prithvi Shaw are also part of the squads.
As the tournament would be keenly noticed by the national selectors, it would be a chance for new faces to make a mark while equally important for old warhorses to stimulate and get a national comeback call-up.
In this piece, we have taken note of three players who can use the Deodhar Trophy for re-entering the national team:
#1 Suresh Raina
Once the limited-overs specialist for Indi, Suresh Raina, after being out of the team for a long time made his comeback earlier this year during England ODIs. But, he went unimpressed, scoring 47 runs in three matches.
Raina has over 5500 ODI runs at an average of 35 including five centuries and 36 fifties. He bats in the middle-order and India has been lately struggling in that position. So, Deodhar Trophy would be an opportunity for him to re-appear in the Indian colours.
He made three consecutive fifties for Uttar Pradesh in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, owing to which he made it to India 'C' team.
#2 Ajinkya Rahane
Mumbai born batsman, Ajinkya Rahane made a strong start to the Vijay Hazare Trophy, scoring 79* and 148 in first two matches. He later joined team India for West Indies Tests and missed the later matches of the tourney.
He finally returned for them in the all-important semi-finals and scored unbeaten 17 runs. Deodhar Trophy would also be a handy tourney for Rahane to make an ODI comeback ahead of World Cup.
He last played white-ball cricket for India during South Africa tour where he scored 50-plus score in just one match out of the six. Later, he faced axe from the team and is still in line for another chance.
#1 Ravichandran Ashwin
One of the all-time greatest Indian spinners, Ravichandran Ashwin has also been out of the One-day team since June 2017. However, the off-spinner is regular in Tests for India.
The 32-year-old owns 150 wickets in 111 matches under the economy of 4.91. Soon after the wrist-spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal cemented their places in the team, Ashwin has been out of the scene.
Meanwhile, he might soon make a comeback if he did well in the Deodhar Trophy, which starts from 23rd October in Delhi.
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