India Test skipper and T20 vice-captain Shubman Gill reached the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru on Saturday for fitness assessment and preparations ahead of travelling to Dubai for the upcoming Asia Cup.
The Indian squad members are scheduled to assemble at Dubai on September 4 ahead of their tournament opener on September 9 against the hosts United Arab Emirates.
Senior batter Rohit Sharma and pacer Mohammed Siraj too have checked into CoE for pre-season fitness assessment.
The process might take place by Sunday, and it will be interesting to see how Rohit, who has retired from T20Is and Tests, approaches the new season.
The 38-year-old is likely to tour Down Under in October for an ODI series (19, 23, 25), but it remains to be seen whether Rohit will turn out for India A in three one-day matches against Australia A on September 30, October 3 and 5 at Kanpur.
In case of Gill, a bout of flu had forced him to skip the ongoing Duleep Trophy quarterfinal against East Zone, where he was named as the North Zone captain.
Gill was recovering from the illness at his Chandigarh home before flying out to Bengaluru.
It's possible that Gill may fly out of Bengaluru to Dubai as this time the players will reach Dubai in a staggered manner from their
Apart from Gill, wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma too has arrived at the CoE for pre-tournament preparations.
Lead pacer Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mohammad Siraj and Shardul Thakur too are set to arrive at CoE for the mandatory pre-season assessment.
Thakur is set to lead West Zone in the Duleep Trophy semi-finals, while Jaiswal and Sundar, who are on the standby list for the Asia Cup, are also set to feature in the Duleep Trophy semis.
Some of the other Asia Cup-bound players such as Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana (North Zone) and Kuldeep Yadav (Central Zone) are already playing the Duleep Trophy quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, South Zone will have to name a new skipper for the Duleep Trophy semi-finals (September 4-7) as Tilak Varma has been included in the Asia Cup squad.
Kerala's Mohammed Azharuddeen is the vice-captain, and he could be promoted to the leadership role or they have more experienced candidates in R Sai Kishore, Devdutt Padikkal or N Jagadeesan.
East Zone suffered a setback as pacer Mukesh Kumar was not bowling in the second innings, possibly owing to a niggle that he sustained during the first innings here.
The Bengal pacer sat out for nine overs in the first innings to tend to his thigh/groin before resuming the bowling. Mukesh also came out to bat in East Zone's first innings.
However, he was not available to bowl in the second innings on the third day of the Duleep Trophy quarter-finals.
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