BCCI Directs State Associations To Select Centrally Contracted Players For Duleep Trophy After KL Rahul, Siraj Miss Out

South Zone had already announced their squad for the upcoming 2025 season of the Duleep Trophy, which didn’t feature any of the Indian players like KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, Prasidh Krishna and Sai Sudharsan, who are currently on a break after the arduous Test tour of England. 

However, the BCCI has now directed the South Zone selectors to include the centrally contracted players, as the board hopes for its top talent to regularly feature in domestic cricket. According to a report by the Indian Express, BCCI General Manager of Cricket Operations Abey Kuruvilla wrote an email to the state associations to include these players in the team that would be captained by Tilak Varma. 

Notably, the Duleep Trophy squads were selected by the Zonal selection committee this time, as it is being held in a zonal format. Each state in the zone had sent a representative to that zonal selection committee. 

“To uphold its prestige and ensure the highest quality of competition, it’s imperative that all currently available India players are selected for their respective zonal teams,” BCCI’s Email stated, as quoted by the Indian Express. 

“Requesting the Zonal Convenors to ensure that all the current India players who are available to play Duleep trophy should be picked.”

The email also gave directives to the players to play domestic cricket who wish to make themselves available for India selection. 

“All players, contracted or otherwise, who make themselves available for selection into Team India, shall participate in domestic matches conducted by BCCI,” the email said.  

“In case any player opts not to participate in any domestic cricket tournaments in spite of availability, he/she shall not be considered for selection unless a prior recommendation is obtained to skip the match/tournament from the National coach and the chairman of the selection committee, and prior approval from the BCCI. In case any leave is granted, the same shall be considered on the basis of some valid and cogent reason.”

Notably, the BCCI had made it clear last year itself that it is compulsory for players to prioritise domestic cricket, and even reiterated it on occasions later. As a result, when the national selection committee picked the Duleep Trophy squads last season, they picked many India players. Even this year, the likes of Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, etc, would be featuring in the Duleep Trophy.