Gill may skip Duleep Trophy

Shubman Gill is likely to miss the upcoming Duleep Trophy, starting in Bengaluru in a few days, as the India skipper is reportedly unwell. He was appointed skipper of the North Zone team.

The North Zone selection committee has been anticipating the possibility of Gill's unavailability for the inter-zonal competition, scheduled to begin on August 28 at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru, for the last few days. However, as of Friday (August 22), they had not received any official communication from the North Zone associations.

However, Cricbuzz understands that the physios recently examined him and submitted a health status report to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) about 24 hours ago. At present, Gill (25) is in Chandigarh, resting at home.

Officials within the BCCI and selection committee - national and zonal - did not immediately respond to specific questions about Gill's availability but sources close to the India Test skipper confirmed the development.

Gill would not have featured in the entire Duleep Trophy in any case, as he was due to leave for national duty in the Asia Cup starting September 9 in the UAE. The Duleep Trophy runs from August 28 to September 15, and at best, he could have been available only for the opening game. North Zone are slated to face East Zone in their quarterfinal at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence ground in Bengaluru.

Earlier this month, Gill returned from a highly successful tour of England where he scored 754 runs in five Tests of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy which prompted the national selectors to pick him in the India Twenty20 squad for the Asia Cup. In fact, he was appointed vice-captain for the Asia Cup.

The North Zone selectors had already made an arrangement of a replacement in the event of Gill missing the competition. Shubham Rohilla was named as a replacement for Gill at the time of announcing the squad. Ankit Kumar was named vice-captain of the North Zone side which means he will now lead the zone in Duleep Trophy.

Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, both named in the Asia Cup squad, will inevitably leave the zonal side after the first game for national duty. Gurnoor Brar and Anuj Thakral were named as the respective replacements for the two pacers, should North Zone proceed beyond the first match, which is a knockout game.

The North Zone selection committee consists of Chetan Sharma (Haryana), Nikhil Chopra (Delhi), Amit Uniyal (Chandigarh), Mithun Minhas (J&K and convenor), Raj Kumar (Services) and Mukesh Kumar (Himachal Pradesh).