The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selectors today announced the India Blue and India Red squads for the Deodhar Trophy 2016-17. The tournament named after Prof. D. B. Deodhar also termed the Grand Old Man of Indian cricket was a Zonal tournament to start with but has been modified into a triangular series now.India Blue and Red will take on Vijay Hazare Trophy champions Tamil Nadu in a three-way challenge from March 25 to March 29. Indian opener Rohit Sharma who made a comeback in the last two matches of Mumbai’s Vijay Hazare campaign has been appointed the captain of the Blue team while wicketkeeper-batsman and Gujarat captain Parthiv Patel will lead the Red team.The selectors have picked prominent performers from the recently concluded List A tournament and they now have a bigger opportunity to stake a claim in the national team ahead of the Champions Trophy. The likes of Mandeep Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Harbhajan Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Ashok Dinda and Dhawal Kulkarni who have been a part of the national team in the past but find themselves out of favour now will want to cash in on this and rise higher in the reckoning.While all those who did well have been rewarded with a spot in either team a major name missing is that of former Indian captain MS Dhoni. The Jharkhand captain not only led his team to the semi-final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy but was also in prime form with the bat scoring 330 runs which include a century and a half.Along with the more recognized players, there are the youngsters in the squads as well. Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda and Ishank Jaggi among others will be itching to do well here and leave a mark on the selectors for further escalation in the ranks.India ‘Blue’ sauad:Rohit Sharma (C), Mandeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Rishabh Pant (wk), Deepak Hooda, Harbhajan Singh, Krunal Pandya, Shahbaz Nadeem, Siddarth Kaul, Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna, Pankaj Rao.India ‘Red’ squad:Parthiv Patel (C & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Mayank Agarwal, Kedar Jadhav, Ishank Jaggi, Gurkeerat Mann, Axar Patel, Akshay Karnewar, Ashok Dinda, Kulwant Khejroliya, Dhawal Kulkarni, Govinda Poddar, Sreevats Goswami."Source: Crictracker