Duleep Trophy
Mumbai, Sep 8: Vidarbha seamer Nachiket Bhute and Madhya Pradesh’s Kumar Kartikeya Singh were among four replacement players named on Monday in the Central Zone squad for their Duleep Trophy final against South Zone.
While Bhute will replace his Vidarbha teammate Yash Thakur, left-arm spinner Kartikeya has been drafted in place of Harsh Dubey.
The Central Zone selectors have also named MP’s right-arm pacer Kuldeep Sen and Rajasthan’s left-arm spinner Ajay Singh Kukna as replacement players for Khaleel Ahmed and Manav Suthar.
The changes to the squad were announced following the inclusion of Thakur, Dubey, Khaleel and Suthar in the India A team to take on Australia A in Lucknow in two four-day unofficial Tests, to be played from September 16-19 and September 23-26.
Central Zone will take on South in the summit clash at Bengaluru’s Centre of Excellence Grounds in a five-day final from September 11-15 after both the teams drew their respective semifinals.
Central Zone drew with the West Zone but advanced to the final on the basis of their first-innings lead, while South Zone also produced a similar effort in their semifinal against the North Zone.
With both sides showcasing depth and resilience in their semifinals, the upcoming clash in Bengaluru promises a competitive finale, where Central Zone will look to overcome the late changes in personnel and South Zone will aim to extend their strong record in the tournament.
Updated Central Zone squad: Rajat Patidar (c), Ayush Pandey, Danish Malewar, Shubham Sharma, Sanchit Desai, Yash Rathod, Nachiket Bhute, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Aditya Thakare, Upendra Yadav (wk), Ajay Singh Kukna, Akshay Wadkar (wk), Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen, Saransh Jain. (PTI)
