Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan to skipper teams in Challenger Trophy
Three-team BCCI competition has India Red, India Blue and national one-day champions Delhi in fray
Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh have been named captains of the India Red and the India Blue teams, respectively, in the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy tournament end-September. National one-day champions Delhi will be the third team in the competition to be held between September 26-29. The venue has not been announced.
This will be Yuvraj's first major competitive tournament ever since he returned from a six-week physical training camp in France in August. Both India Red and India Blue squads are loaded with Team India hopefuls. Interestingly, Irfan will be leading elder brother Yusuf Pathan and Robin Uthappa. The two India teams were picked by the Board of Control for Cricket in India's all-India senior selection committee in Vishakhapatnam on Tuesday.
Yuvraj will be leading a relatively junior side with Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar adding a bit of experience in the bowling department. The Challenger Trophy has always been a place for young stars to showcase their talent though the short duration of the tournament may often prove counter-productive.
THE SQUADS
INDIA RED: Irfan Pathan (captain), Robin Uthappa, Abhinav Mukund, Sourabh Tiwary, Gurkirat Mann, Kedar Jadhav, Smit Patel (wicketkeeper), Yusuf Pathan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Abhimanyu Mithun, Umesh Yadav and Suraj Yadav.
INDIA BLUE: Yuvraj Singh (captain), Akshath Reddy, Naman Ojha (wicketkeeper), Mandeep Singh, Ankit Bawane, Abhishek Nayar, Manish Pandey, Piyush Chawla, Ankit Rajpoot, Vinay Kumar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Iresh Saxena.