Gill to lead North Zone in Duleep Trophy

new delhi: Indian Test skipper Shubman Gill was on Thursday named captain of the North Zone squad for the upcoming Duleep Trophy, beginning August 28, less than three weeks after he led a young side to a thrilling 2-2 draw against England in a gruelling five-Test series.

The 25-year-old Gill, who took over Test captaincy following the retirements of stalwarts Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin, was one of the standout performers on the England tour. Gill led from the front, amassing 754 runs in the series -- the second-highest by an Indian in a single Test series after Sunil Gavaskar’s 774 in the 1971 tour of the West Indies -- as India levelled the series 2-2 for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. Gill’s appointment as North Zone skipper means he will be back in the domestic fold shortly after the energy-sapping England tour, which concluded on August 4.

North Zone face East Zone in their Duleep Trophy opener on August 28, with the final scheduled for September 11 -- overlapping with India’s Asia Cup campaign, set to begin September 10.