Duleep Trophy: Shardul to lead West Zone

new delhi: India and Mumbai all-rounder Shardul Thakur was on Friday named the West Zone captain for the Duleep Trophy to be played in September.

The 15-member squad also includes India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, middle-order batters Sarfaraz Khan and Shreyas Iyer as a total of seven Mumbai players have been named in the team.

Ruturaj Gaikwad will bolster the middle-order while Saurashtra’s Harvik Desai and Maharashtra’s Saurabh Nawale are the wicketkeepers.

Seven others, including Mumbai’s Musheer Khan, were named among standby players. However, senior batters Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara were not included in the squad. The six-team Duleep Trophy is moving back to the zonal format as the tournament will be the 2025-26 domestic season opener with state selectors from respective zones naming the squads.

The tournament was held between four teams — India A, B, C and D — picked by the national selectors last year.

South Zone were the winners when the tournament was held in the zonal format. agencies