Shubman Gill captaining the North Zone team is a massive shot in the arm for Duleep Trophy: Sunil Gavaskar

Former Indian cricketer and commentator Sunil Gavaskar has opened up on the Indian Test captain Shubman Gill opting to play the Duleep Trophy 2025-26 campaign right after the conclusion of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.

Notably, Gill has been appointed as the captain of the North Zone team for the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2025-26 season, which is scheduled to start later this month, kicking off the Indian domestic season.

It’s important to note that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has made it mandatory for all Indian players to compete in the Indian domestic tournaments to stay in contention for selection at the international level.

Notably, this change was brought in by the BCCI after India’s poor Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia Down Under, which India lost by 1-3. Gavaskar has stated that Gill has sent the right signal by opting to play the Duleep Trophy.

"It was good, therefore, to see that after the tour to Bangladesh was postponed to next year, the BCCI resisted the pressure to send a team for a white-ball series to Sri Lanka this month. By doing that, the BCCI has prioritised domestic cricket, as it means that now most, if not all, of the top players will be available to play in the Duleep Trophy tournament starting shortly," Gavaskar wrote in a column for Sportstar.

"Shubman Gill captaining the North Zone team is a massive shot in the arm for this tournament. By being available for the tournament, the Indian skipper is sending the right signal to the other members of the team. It would have been understandable if, after a gruelling tour where five Test matches were crammed into a little over six weeks, he had opted to rest. The fast bowlers not playing is good thinking, as it has been an unusually hot summer in England, thanks to global warming, and their energies must have been expended after the untiring spells they bowled throughout the series,” he added.

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