Deodhar Trophy, 2018: Ravi Ashwin ruled out of the tournament

A day after the announcement as the captain of his Indian Premier League (IPL) team, Ravichandran Ashwin was appointed as the skipper of the India ‘A’ team for the Deodhar Trophy. However, less than 24 hours after the announcement from the BCCI, the off-spinner has been ruled out of the tournament due to niggle. The Deodhar Trophy will be contested by India ‘A’, India ‘B’ and the Vijay Hazare Trophy champions Karnataka between March 4th and 8th in Dharamsala.

The Indian cricket board named the Jharkhand left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem in the India ‘A’ in the absence of Ashwin. Maharashtra’s Ankit Bawne, who was initially named in India ‘B’ side, will now be leading India ‘A’ squad. Akshdeep Nath has been moved to India ‘B’ squad to accommodate this change. Bawne made his captaincy debut by leading Maharashtra during this Ranji season. Ashwin, who had a niggling issue, was advised for a week’s rest by the BCCI medical team.

Kings XI Punjab chose Ashwin as their captain ahead of the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Aaron Finch. The team’s mentor Virender Sehwag made this announcement in a live video on KXIP’s Facebook page on Monday along with the off-spinner. BCCI named the 31-year-old as the skipper of the Deodhar Trophy side on Tuesday after the conclusion of the Vijay Hazare Trophy which Karnataka won after defeating Saurashtra in the final.

Here are the updated squads for the Prof D B Deodhar Trophy:

India A squad:

Ankit Bawne (c), Prithvi Shaw, Unmukt Chand, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shubman Gill, Ricky Bhui, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (wk), Krunal Pandya, Mohammad Shami, Navdeep Saini, Basil Thampi, Kulwant Khejroliya, Amandeep Khare, Rohit Rayudu.

India B Squad:

Shreyas Iyer (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Akshdeep Nath, Manoj Tiwary, Siddhesh Lad, KS Bharat (wk), Jayant Yadav, D Jadeja, Hanuma Vihari, Siddarth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Umesh Yadav, Rajat Patidar.