BCCI puts India's bench strength on show; set to field 5 teams in 5 weeks

A total of 69 different players will be taking the field in a span of 35 days in an interesting stretch of the cricket calendar for the nation

Indian cricket is about to split itself into multiple lanes. Over the next five weeks, the BCCI will have players representing the country in the Asian Games, the West Indies series, the India A programme and the Irani Cup, with 69 cricketers expected to be involved across 15 venues between September 22 and October 17.

The busy calendar itself is not unusual for Indian cricket. What makes this stretch different is the way the BCCI has chosen to distribute its resources. There is a senior ODI side featuring Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, a separate T20 group led by Shreyas Iyer, an Asian Games squad packed with established T20 internationals, an India A unit split across red-ball and white-ball cricket, and a Rest of India side drawing from domestic cricket.

It is, in effect, a month-long audition of India's depth, but each assignment comes with a different selection brief.