Bengaluru, Sep 3: The dynamic trio of Shreyas Iyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shardul Thakur will be aiming to make a statement when a star-studded West Zone takes on Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy semifinal here on Thursday.
Iyer, who could not find a place in India’s Asia Cup squad, will be keen to begin the season on a bright note here, and keep himself in contention ahead of some crucial assignments such as the home series against the West Indies and the subsequent white ball tour of Australia.
This might be an incredibly frustrating phase for Iyer, whose 604 runs across 17 matches for Punjab Kings at an average of 50.33 and at a strike-rate in excess of 175 did not resonate with the selectors during the Asia Cup selection.
But if he can channelise that frustration and turn it into runs, West Zone may be benefitted.
Jaiswal offers a slightly different case. Having already secured his place in the Test side for the foreseeable future, the young left-hander would want to sustain his red ball game time ahead of the home series against the West Indies and world champions South Africa.
His last competitive outing was the fifth Test against England at the Oval, and since he is yet to crack the white ball code, Jaiswal might have to wait till the series against the West Indies in October for an international appearance.
On other hand, Thakur, who is set to lead West Zone, will try to push his stocks up after lukewarm outings against England in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy to remain on the selectors’ radar.
Other prominent members of the West Zone team like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Tanush Kotian will hope for a strong effort to get back into national reckoning.
On paper, West carries far too many guns but Central Zone are no mere pushovers.
Dhruv Jurel might come back to lead them if the India wicketkeeper batter has recovered from a groin niggle that kept him out of the quarterfinals against North East Zone.
Even without Jurel, their batting packed a punch as stand-in skipper Rajat Patidar, Danish Malewar and Shubham Sharma cracked big hundreds last week.
They also have a competent bowling unit in left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey, and pacers Khaleel Ahmed and Deepak Chahar.
They will nonetheless have a job at hand against a strong West Zone batting line-up, which will miss an injured Sarfaraz Khan, on a BCCI Centre of Excellence pitch that looked slow and smooth during the quarterfinals.
But they will miss the presence of left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who is travelling to Dubai to join India’s Asia Cup squad.
North take on South
The absence of Tilak Varma, who has left for Dubai to start his preparations for Asia Cup, pacer Vysakh Vijayakumar and left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore, both of whom have been injured, will weaken South Zone.
Therefore they will require some healthy scores from the likes of N Jagadeesan, Devdutt Padikkal and Salman Nizar, who recently slammed 11 sixes in 13 balls in the Kerala Cricket League, to tide over North’s challenge.
North will also have to contend with the unavailability of pacers Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, as they are part of the Asia Cup squad.
India pacer Anshul Kamboj is likely to step in for this match.
Hence, they will require an encore from the likes of Ayush Badoni, skipper Ankit Kumar and Yash Dhull, who were the centurions in the quarterfinals. (PTI)
Matches start at 9.30 AM.
