Kolkata: The Duleep Trophy doing away with zone based teams could be a sign of keeping with the times but more encouraging is the robust presence of international players, making up more than a third of the total strength. Considering the dwindling audience of domestic cricket, a star lit Duleep Trophy could be just the dose of relevance it needs. And unlike in the recent past, this Duleep Trophy—starting Thursday in Bengaluru and Anantapur—has a raging context as well.

For the bulk of the upcoming season, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami are expected to lead India’s bowling. Siraj, however, is unwell and Shami’s domestic return is still undecided. And with workload management paramount to preserving our fast bowlers, the selectors will be well-served with a backup reserve. Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep are at the frontline of that pool but with Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Vidwath Kaverappa, Vysakh Vijayakumar and Harshit Rana too named, Kumar and Deep can’t take their places for granted.

Less complicated looks India’s batting line-up which, fitness permitting, should have Rohit Sharma opening with Yashasvi Jaiswal, followed by Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant occupying No 1-6 before Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel come in as spinner-allrounders during the five Tests (two against Bangladesh and three against New Zealand) at home. Dhruv Jurel should be backup wicketkeeper, but it remains to be seen how India plan to accommodate Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan or Rajat Patidar—who had a forgettable home series against England—in the squad.

The good thing is that apart from Sharma, Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav—out due to an injury—all the specialist batters are playing in this Duleep Trophy, allowing themselves a valuable opportunity to brush up their skills or stake a claim in the settled India line-up. Key to this should be playing spin well, because this time Bangladesh are set to arrive with off-spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz and left-arm spinnerShakib Al Hasan who played stellar roles in their historic 2-0 sweep of Pakistan. And few can argue how this pair of off-spin and left-arm bowling has troubled India since that 2012 tour of England.

A glance at the last 10 years of performance of overseas spinners in India isn’t going to set off any alarm bells, particularly if you take into account their striking rates. But as many as 14 times have off spinners or left-arm spinners taken at least five wickets or more in a Test innings here, underlining India’s growing despair against this particular combination of slow bowling. It somewhat explains Gill’s specific preparation too. “I worked on my defence a little bit more against spinners,” said Gill, who is leading India A, said in Bengaluru on Wednesday. “You should be able to defend a lot more when you are playing on a turning track against spinners, then you can play the scoring shots.”

Nothing would have prepared the Test batting core better than facing in tandem Ashwin and Jadeja, India’s spin constant at home. But Patel is playing, as is Kuldeep Yadav who are expected to give the batters an equally thorough workout. Among the off spinners, Washington Sundar can test batters and Delhi off spinner Hrithik Shokeen has a chance to make an impression. Left-arm spinners R Sai Kishore and Saurabh Kumar too should be a good threat once the pitches become more abrasive. Hundreds shouldn’t matter as much as technique against spin. For if that box is ticked, this Duleep trophy could go a long way in preparing India for the spin assault coming their way this home season.

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