Duleep Trophy Semi-Final: Shardul’s West Zone Face Patidar-Led Central Zone

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