Akshay replaces Abhishek in India Red squad for Duleep Trophy

The BCCI on Monday made a late replacement in the India Red squad for the upcoming Duleep Trophy domestic competition by including Akshay Wadkar in place of banned Abhishek Gupta.

Gupta is currently serving an eight-month ban for doping violation that ends in September and keeping that in mind the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the replacement for the Abhinav Mukund-led side.

"It was brought to notice by the BCCI anti-doping team that Abhishek Gupta who was initially added in the India Red squad is serving an 8-month ban for a doping violation," a BCCI statement read.

"His ban is set to end on the September 14. The senior selection committee has reached a consensus that Akshay Wadkar will be included in the India Red team as Gupta's replacement," it added.

Earlier in the day, the BCCI selectors met in Kolkata to pick the squads for the upcoming four-day games against South Africa 'A' & the quadrangular series against South Africa A and Australia A.

During the meet, the committee also picked the teams for the Duleep Trophy, 2018-19.

While Mukund was named the skipper of the India Red side, Faiz Fazal will lead India Blue.

Veteran India stumper Parthiv Patel will skipper the India Green in the Duleep Trophy.

The revised squad is as follows: India Blue: Faiz Fazal (Captain), Abhishek Raman, Anmolpreet Singh, Ganesh Satish, N. Gangta, Dhruv Shorey, K.S. Bharat (WK), Akshay Wakhare, Saurav Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Basil Thampi, B Ayappa, Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni

India Red: Abhinav Mukund (Captain), R.R. Sanjay, Ashutosh Singh, Baba Aparajith, Writtick Chatterjee, B. Sandeep, Akshay Wadkar (WK), S. Nadeem, Mihir Hirwani, Parvez Rasool, R. Gurbani, A Mithun, Ishan Porel, Y. Prithvi Raj

India Green: Parthiv Patel (Captain & WK), Prashant Chopra, Priyank Panchal, Sudeep Chatterjee, Gurkeerat Mann, Baba Indrajit, V.P. Solanki, Jajal Saxena, Karn Sharma, Vikas Mishra, K. Vignesh, Ankit Rajpoot, Ashok Dinda, Atith Sheth.

--IANS

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