The Duleep Trophy is back now in proper zonal format, and, quite frankly, domestic cricket has just had a makeover. Starting as late as the end of August, this edition has some international big names, IPL regulars, and hungry home-grown talent, interspersed with red-ball tests that can tip selectors’ heads.
Zonal format and logistics
A return to zones means more regional pride and clearer player pathways for those players eager to show they can make the grade (Test match credentials). The tournament’s quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final are all jammed in between late August and mid-September, and matches occur every few days, so the action is punchy and selectors’ notebooks are full. Matches are centralized at Bengaluru’s BCCI Centre of Excellence, an edition that ends up including a compact, intense festival of red-ball cricket, where form is assessed in consistent conditions.
The IPL conveyor belt: who’s turning up
See the familiar names don a different mood: Gujarat Titans’ Shubman Gill is the face, with Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal (RCB) in supported squads, Tilak Varma and Deepak Chahar (MI), Ruturaj Gaikwad and Khaleel Ahmed (CSK), Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel (RR), Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep Singh (PBKS), and Shardul Thakur and Akash Deep (LSG). Beyond the headliners are net-bred youngsters and standby options keen to leap from IPL hype to red-ball resiliency.
That’s a recipe for delicious tension: will brute force survive five days, or will cerebral patience and technique prevail? What does it mean for fans? That explosive batsmen will learn to leave more deliveries, and IPL bowlers will trade short, tight bursts for experimentation-laden pauses of strategic bowling. The format offers franchises and selectors a perfect opportunity to see who can adapt.
What to watch closely
Leadership, work rate, and wrestling against the seam-spin battle are the obvious narratives. Players coming fresh away from England, or with some IPL niggles, will balance their minutes against their impact on the match; the likes of Gill, who take captains’ attention on the Test circuit, will inherit the same on the Duleep front.
And bowlers also have a place, with those who have played their county fare, or spent time nurturing their skills in IPL camps, could be key on Bengaluru wickets that are already leaning towards holding. Selectors need to ask whether players resemble red-ball specialists or entertaining short-format superstars – it is ultimately with the Duleep Trophy where much of this lies.
And don’t overlook the youngsters either: if the U-19 players and fringe players who came out of IPL 2025 go off like rockets will get a red-ball learn-to-war experience. For selectors, this is less about stat-lines and more about temperament — leaving balls, session, partnerships. Expect household names to survive five days, and some big IPL names who are going to find that this format requires very different skills.
You could think of the Duleep Trophy as this season’s laboratory—concise, illuminating, and full of narrative contours where IPL superstardom is stress-tested by red-ball needs. It is high-stakes domestic cricket in its rawest form, where comebacks and stature are manipulated: which IPL superstar trading brightness for wool you are most looking forward to seeing? Let the domestic season run its course — life’s nothing without risk!
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