Rahane to lead West Zone; Karan named Central captain

NEW DELHI: A fit-again former India captain Ajinkya Rahane will lead a powerful West Zone side in the Duleep Trophy scheduled in Tamil Nadu from September 8-25. It was reported last Sunday that Rahane, who is recuperating from a groin injury, will make a comeback to competitive cricket with the Duleep Trophy.

The members of Ranji finalist Mumbai team, including internationals like Prithvi Shaw and Shardul Thakur and rising stars like Yashashvi Jaiswal, Shams Mulani, Hardik Tamore and Tanush Kotian have all been picked. From Saurashtra, veteran Jaydev Unadkat has been picked while Rahul Tripathi, who recently made it to national team, is also in the West Zone squad.

The Central Zone also announced its squad and most of the stars of Madhya Pradesh’s Ranji Trophy winning squad are there in the team including Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma, Kumar Kartikeya along with all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer.

Squads: West Zone: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Prithvi Shaw (Mumbai), Yashasvi Jaiswal (Mumbai), Shreyas Iyer (Mumbai), Hardik Tamore (wk, Mumbai), Shams Mulani (Mumbai), Tanush Kotian (Mumbai), Shardul Thakur (Mumbai), Rahul Tripathi (Maharashtra), Satyajeet Bachhav (Maharashtra), Het Patel (Gujarat), Chintan Gaja (Gujarat), Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra), Chirag Jani (Saurashtra), Atit Sheth (Baroda)

Central Zone: Karan Sharma (c), Shubham Sharma (vc), Himanshu Mantri (wk), Yash Dubey, Priyam Garg, Rinku Singh, Ashok Menaria, Akshay Wadkar (wk), Gaurav Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Dhopola, Aniket Chaudhary, Kumar Kartikey, Aditya Sarvatey, Ankit Rajput