The domestic season of Indian cricket has started with the Dalip Trophy 2025-26 being played in Bengaluru. The Dalip Trophy is a major tournament of the Cricket Control Board of India (BCCI), but its quarter -final matches have not been telecasted live, which got a lot of resentment among the fans.
Apart from this, another big problem has been seen in the Dalip Trophy. The quality of the pitches used in both the quarter -finals of the Dalip Trophy is being questioned. There is a lot of runs in the Dalip Trophy, but the bowlers have to work hard to take wickets.
The first quarter -finals have been played at the BCCI CEG Ground in Bengaluru between the North Zone vs East Zone. At the same time, the second quarter -final between Central Zone and East Zone has been held on BCCI CEG Ground B. In both these matches, the batsmen have been seen.
Star players playing in Dalip Trophy
1048 runs in the first three -day game in the match between the Central Zone and North East Zone. The Central Zone scored 532 runs in their first innings. Then he covered the first innings of North East Zone for 185 runs. After this, the Central Zone declared its second innings on the score of 331/7. The Central Zone is a strong team, in such a situation it was already being speculated that they would be overshadowed by the opposition team.
But whatever happened in the match between the North Zone and the East Zone was the reason for real concern. Both teams include players playing for India, so the match was expected to be prickly. The North Zone team has star players like Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana. At the same time, Ryan Parag, Mohammed Shami and Mukesh Kumar are part of the East Zone. But in this match, a total of 1023 runs were scored in the 3 -day game and only 22 wickets fell.
In the third day’s game, 388 runs were scored, while 2 wickets fell. During this time, the run speed was also 4.31 runs per over. In India, as the match usually passes, the pitch starts to break or the ball starts to remain low or reverse swing. Also, it is common for spinners to get help. But nothing like this happened in this match. The bowlers have not got help at all. North Zone scored 405 runs in his first innings. In response, East Zone’s first innings was reduced to 230 runs. Then in the second innings, the North Zone batsmen showed more amazing play and scored 658 runs for 4 wickets.
Certainly such pitches cannot be said to be right in terms of cricket. When the Indian team plays in their home, the helpful pitches of spinners are often prepared. Many times, the ball gives such a turn on these pitches that the Indian batsmen themselves get upset. The same thing was seen in the Test series last year against New Zealand, where the Indian batsmen were implicated in their spin by Mitchell Santner and Ejaz Patel. The Indian team lost that Test series 0-3.
What is the use of domestic tournaments?
Now the question arises whether the upcoming Test matches against West Indies or South Africa will have pitches like the Duleep Trophy. If there is no answer, then what is the benefit of getting domestic tournaments. Some of the players playing in the Dalip Trophy can be selected for the domestic Test series against South Africa and West Indies.
Indian players will play on such pitches in domestic cricket that are not like tests at all, then how will the selectors decide which player is ready and who is not. Batsmen can definitely take confidence by making big scores on flat pitches. But when they have to play on a surface where the ball is swing or spinning from the beginning, then they can get into trouble.
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