• Source:JND
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Legendary opener Sunil Gavaskar has heaped praise on India Test captain Shubman Gill for opting to play in the Duleep Trophy, highlighting that it sets a positive benchmark for his teammates.

Earlier, the teams announced their star-studded lineups for the 2025 Duleep Trophy, featuring a host of talented cricketers alongside Shubman Gill. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, and Arshdeep Singh will also take part in the tournament.

In the recently concluded five-match Test series against England, India secured a 2-2 draw, with Gill topping the run-scoring charts with over 750 runs.

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The 25-year-old Test captain will lead a 15-player squad, which also includes pacers Anshul Kamboj, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana.

“Shubman Gill, captaining the North Zone team, is a massive shot in the arm for this tournament. By being available, 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,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.

Former India captain applauded Gill's decision to play in the Duleep Trophy while also throwing his weight behind the decision to rest fast bowlers.

“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 noted.

Gavaskar also praised the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for putting domestic cricket at the forefront over an international white-ball series.

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"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," wrote Gavaskar.

"By doing that, the BCCI have 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," he added.