Chetan Sharma hails BCCI's bold decision to mandate domestic cricket for India stars

Ex-India cricketer Chetan Sharma has welcomed the BCCI's move to make domestic cricket compulsory for regular Indian international players. Sharma was talking about the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2024 where a no. of international players will be making their appearance.

The Duleep Trophy 2024 will begin on September 5 and regular India players like KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer, and many more will be in action. The decision to include regular Indian players was taken in order to provide the players with sufficient match practice before a hectic season of Test cricket.

It will provide much-needed match practice to players like Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul who haven't played red-ball cricket for some time now. It will be Pant's first competitive red-ball match after his life-threatening accident in December 2022.

Also read: "Can you hit the ball straight?" - Alastair Cook gives golden advice to struggling Ollie Pope

Chetan Sharma hails BCCI's move to make domestic cricket compulsory for senior Indian players

While speaking to news agency IANS, Chetan Sharma praised the move by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

Sharma believes a cricketer should not say no to any form of cricket and the upcoming Duleep Trophy will provide them some great match practice as it will have India's best 60-65 players.

"It's a great move by the BCCI. I have been a cricketer myself and our job is to play cricket. We should not deny playing cricket whenever we are asked to play. It can't get better than that if we get to play competitive cricket. This is a great decision by the BCCI that India's best 60-65 players will be competing in the Duleep Trophy," Sharma said.

During the conversation, Chetan Sharma also spoke about Shubman Gill's selection in the Indian team and his promotion. It is to be noted that Sharma has served as India's former chief selector as well and he feels happy to see Gill performing well in international cricket.

"We feel happy. I had the whole team with me there. We saw that young boy (Shubman Gill) and he delivered. That is the best part. A lot of players get opportunities but it is important to see who delivers the most. The ones who will deliver will take the credit and this boy has delivered," the former India fast bowler said.

"Today, he has been given the role of vice-captaincy. I want him to do even better and pray that he elevates to another level. So, it feels nice that such players have reached great heights after getting opportunities," he added.

IANS Exclusive

Former chief selector and cricketer Chetan Sharma welcomes BCCI's move of asking senior players to feature in domestic cricket too pic.twitter.com/rJjzSZzhSf

— IANS (@ians_india) August 31, 2024

Chetan Sharma warns India not to take Bangladesh lightly

Chetan Sharma also advised India to be wary of the Bangladesh team and not take them lightly.

He believes that India needs to keep winning in order to collect crucial points in the WTC cycle and it makes the matches played at home extremely important.

"If you talk about international cricket, no format is easy. You have to be very serious regardless of the team you are playing against. The pitches in India and Australia are totally different. India's preparation will be totally different for the Bangladesh series and the Australia series," Sharma mentioned.

"But you can't take any team lightly. This is a World Test Championship (WTC) cycle, so you have to collect points. If you are playing at home, you must ensure to win both the matches convincingly," he said.

India's upcoming schedule

India's next assignment will be the two-match Test series at home against Bangladesh which will begin on September 19. After the series against Bangladesh, India will also play a T20I series against the same team.

The Men in Blue will then play New Zealand for three Tests at home. But the main focus will be the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in which India will travel to Australia for a five-match Test series. It is a highly anticipated series between the two best teams in the current WTC cycle.