Senior batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s absence from the Duleep Trophy squads has raised a few eyebrows. The First-Class tournament would be played from September 5 with four teams battling for the trophy over a period of 17 days.

Shubman Gill, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Shreyas Iyer have been named captains of Team A, Team B, Team C, and Team D respectively.

International players such as KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh among others will also feature in the competition.

Among the stars, the likes of Rohit, Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya have been exempted. While ace pacer Bumrah has been given extended period of rest to manage his workload, Hardik isn’t in the red-ball scheme of things for the last six years because of injury issues.

However, the decision to not pick Rohit and Kohli has been criticized by some experts, including the legendary Sunil Gavaskar.

According to Gavaskar, the batting stalwarts could have benefitted from some game time in the Duleep Trophy ahead of the Test series against Bangladesh.

“The selectors have not picked the skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the Duleep Trophy so they will most likely go into the Bangladesh Test series without much match practice,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for mid-day.

“While it’s understandable that somebody like Jasprit Bumrah with his delicate back needs to be handled with care, the batters could have done with some batting time out in the middle. Once a player hits the mid-thirties in any sport, then regular competition will help him maintain the high standards he has set. When there’s a longish gap then the muscle memory weakens somewhat and to get back to the high standards from earlier is not easy,” he added.

Earlier, BCCI secretary Jay Shah explained that the aim is to ensure Rohit and Kohli are fit for India's five-match Test series in Australia later this year.

"Apart from them, everyone else is playing. You should appreciate that. One must note that Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer are playing in the Buchi Babu tournament. We should not insist on players like Rohit and Virat to play in the Duleep Trophy. They will risk injury. If you have noticed, in Australia and England, every international player does not play domestic cricket. We have to treat the players with respect,” Shah told TOI.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will return to action in the home Test series against Bangladesh, starting September 19 in Chennai.