Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel, and Abhinav Mukund will lead the India Blue, Green and Red teams respectively in the upcoming Duleep Trophy, which will be played with a pink ball under the lights for the second year in a row. The series will be played from September 7.

Earlier this month, the BCCI had removed the tradition curtain-raiser of Indian season from the 2017-18 domestic calendar but the board was forced to change the decision on Committee of Administrators’ insistence.

“We were told that Duleep Trophy was not on the [domestic] schedule, but we thought it is an important engagement and should not be dropped so we have asked them to restore it. And, it has been restored,” CoA chairman Vinod Rai was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

The tournament, nevertheless, will provide a good opportunity for some out-of-favor players especially Suresh Raina to make a big impression and strengthen their claims for a place in the national team. Raina, who is currently out of the Indian team, last donned the national jersey in January this year during the T20 series against England but his last ODI appearance had come way back in October 2015. Similarly, Mukund will also look to make the most of the opportunity after falling behind in the pecking order in the national team due to his inconsistent performances which has coincided with Shikhar Dhawan’s terrific performance in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, the format of the Duleep Trophy is likely to remain similar to last year. In 2016, the league stage was played in a round-robin format, with each game lasting four days while the day-night games began at 2 pm IST. The final was a five-day match.