Duleep Trophy Semi-Final: Shardul’s West Zone Face Patidar-Led Central Zone
Duleep Trophy 2025: Sarfaraz Khan will not play this match. He was injured during the Buchi Babu tournament. He had an injury in his quadriceps. Thakur and Deshpande will be responsible for the fast bowling attack of the West Zone. At the same time, in spin bowling, they have the option of Shams Mulani and Tanush Kotian.
The strong team of West Zone will clash with Central Zone, led by Shardul Thakur, in the semi-finals of the 2025-26 Duleep Trophy. Whereas in the quarter-finals, the Central Zone team took the lead in the first innings and made it to the semi-finals. However, now they are facing a very strong team of the West Zone, which includes Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Rituraj Gaikwad, and Tushar Deshpande.
Sarfaraz Khan will not be playing this match. He was injured during the Buchi Babu tournament. He had an injury in his quadriceps. Thakur and Deshpande will be responsible for the fast bowling attack of the West Zone. On the other hand, they have the option of Shams Mulani and Tanush Kotian in spin bowling.
On the other hand, Kuldeep Yadav is not in the team of the Central Zone. He has been selected for the Asia Cup. Also, Captain Dhruv Jurel will not be able to play this match due to injury. He has a strain problem in his groin. He was also not able to participate in the quarter-finals. Vidarbha wicketkeeper-batsman Akshay Wadkar has been included in the team in place of Jurel. Rajat Patidar can be given the charge of captaincy.
The batsmen of Central Zone performed very well against North East Zone. Patidar and Shubham Sharma scored centuries in that match, while young Danish Malewar scored a double century. If we talk about the bowling of the Central Zone, then Khalil Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, and Harsh Dubey are its most prominent bowlers. There will be no live telecast of this match.
Shreyas is returning to competitive cricket for the first time since IPL 2025. He was not selected in the Asia Cup squad. His performance in the IPL was quite good but it was not enough for his selection. Now he would like to try to impress the selectors again by scoring runs during the busy domestic schedule.
Rajat Patidar had a great start to his 2025-26 domestic season. In the quarter-finals, he played an innings of 125 runs in 96 balls. Also, in the second innings, he scored 66 runs in 72 balls. Patidar's form in front of West Zone's excellent bowling attack is very important for Central. Baroda's Shivalik Sharma has been included in the West Zone team in place of Sarfaraz Khan. He can be sent to bat in the middle order.
West Zone (Probable): 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Harvik Desai (wicketkeeper), 3 Rituraj Gaikwad, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Shivalik Sharma, 6 Jaimeet Patel, 7 Shardul Thakur (captain), 8 Shams Mulani, 9 Tanush Kotian, 10 Tushar Deshpande, 11 Dharmendrasinh Jadeja/Arshan Nagwaswala
In Central's quarter-final, Aryan Juyal retired hurt after scoring 60 runs and after that he did not return to the field for the entire match. In his place, Railways' wicketkeeper-batsman Upendra Yadav was included in the team. Rajasthan's left-arm spinner Manav Suthar can also be given a chance in the team in place of Kuldeep.
Central Zone (probable): 1 Ayush Pandey, 2 Danish Malewar, 3 Shubham Sharma, 4 Rajat Patidar (captain), 5 Upendra Yadav/Akshay Wadkar (wicketkeeper), 6 Yash Rathore, 7 Deepak Chahar, 8 Harsh Dubey, 9 Manav Suthar, 10 Aditya Thackeray, 11 Khaleel Ahmed
