The Duleep Trophy will see some of India’s greatest talent up in arms against each other to vie for ultimate glory.

By Rohit Sakunia

The Indian team has been selected for the Sri Lanka tour later this month. However, the ones left out would not give up hope too soon.

Some of the Indian players who were permanent names till last year in the national team are now playing this tournament to be back in the reckoning, while some of the youngsters are playing this zonal format after having excelled in the Ranji season and are now looking forward to stamping their image in the selectors' minds.

Sreesanth making his return after an injury lay off

S Sreesanth is one of the key players who is making his return after an injury lay off. His form and fitness will be closely monitored by the national selectors. He played only one Ranji match for Kerala, in which he took seven wickets against Jharkhand, and will get between one and three games to prove himself.

This would be a very important series for Sreesanth that can bring him back into the reckoning for the New Zealand tour where he would be more than keen to exploit the conditions.

Abhishek Nayar from Mumbai is another key player, who would be looking forward to making it to the Indian side. He has had a good Ranji season and also scored a critical 99 in the finals against Uttar Pradesh after his team at one stage was precariously placed at 55 for four.

Apart from that his nippy medium pacers might also help just him stake his claims.

UP's leading wicket-taker for the season Bhuvneshwar Kumar would also be hoping to do well for the Central zone and make inroads in the Indian side.

His five wicket haul against a top-class Mumbai batting line up in the finals, where he also scalped the prized wicket of Sachin Tendulkar for a first-time duck in domestic cricket and then a good show with the bat would definitely strengthen his case if he does well again in the Duleep Trophy.

Apart from these players, UP's leading run-scorer Tanmay Srivastava, RP Singh, Dinesh Karthik and Mohammad Kaif, all of whom have scored more than 500 runs this Ranji season but are left out of the squad for the Sri Lanka tour, are the ones to look out for.

The race for the top is heating up even as the winter chill sets in further.