Duleep Trophy has always been one of the best-known cricket competitions in India, and the tournament is set to kick-start this season on September 7 with Abhinav Mukund-led India Red taking on India Green, who will be captained by Parthiv Patel. The third team, India Blue, will be led by Suresh Raina.

The tournament was forced back into the cricket calendar after Sourav Ganguly wrote a letter to the Committee of Administrators (CoA) against its removal.

The 22-day domestic cricket competition will be played with pink balls under lights, which will make for a fascinating contest. 

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Duleep Trophy will be of huge importance to some players including Raina, who can use this as a perfect platform to make an impression and fight for his place in the India team.

With the India team becoming stronger day by day, getting back into the India side in any format will not be easy.

The likes of Karun Nair and Murali Vijay will be eager to prove themselves and get back into the India Test team as well.

Suresh Raina, India, Duleep Trophy
Suresh Raina.IANS

However, it is not only about such quality players but also young promising Indian players who will be looking to shine and knock at the selector's door.

Basil Thampy, Rishabh Pant, Jaydev Unadkat, Siddharth Kaul are the emerging cricketers in India, and a disciplined performance from these young guns can further strengthen their position as gems of India cricket.

Ekana International Stadium in Lucknow and the well-known Green Park stadium in Kanpur are the two venues of Duleep Trophy 2017

Here is the complete schedule of Duleep Trophy 2017

September 7-10: India Red v India Green (Lucknow)

September 13-16: India Red v India Blue (Kanpur)

September 19-22: India Blue v India Green (Kanpur)

September 25-29: Final (Lucknow)

Squads
India Red: Abhinav Mukund (c), Priyank Panchal, Sudip Chatterjee, Ishank Jaggi, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant (w), B Indrajith, K Gowtham, Karn Sharma, Basil Thampi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ashok Dinda, Rahul Singh, CV Milind

India Green: M Vijay, R Samarth, Prashant Chopra, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Ankit Bawne, Parthiv Patel (c,w), Shahbaz Nadeem, Parvez Rasool, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Sidharth Kaul, Mayank Dagar, Nitin Saini, Aniket Choudhary

India Blue: Suresh Raina (c), Samit Gohel, KS Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Manoj Tiwary, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Ishan Kishan (w), Jayant Yadav, Bhargav Bhatt, Kaushik Gandhi, Ishant Sharma, Ankit Rajpoot, Sagun Kamat, Jaydev Unadkat