BCCI’s season-opening 2023 Duleep Trophy, the inter-zonal first-class competition, is set to be hosted across multiple venues in Bengaluru from June 28 to July 16. Six teams across zones – North, South, East, West, Central and North-East – will participate in the tournament.
The winners of Central Zone vs East Zone and North-East Zone vs North Zone will play West Zone and South Zone – last year’s finalists – respectively in the semi-finals from July 5. The final will be held at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on July 12.
Once known for providing a push to players in national contention, the competition has been fighting for relevance in recent times. Last year, it was reintroduced after a three-season break due to Covid-19.
Tilak Varma’s chance to impress with red ball
Currently playing in the TNPL, Washington will have an opportunity to prove his long-format chops, particularly with the ball, with the selectors keen to ready back-ups for the Test squad, outside of the R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.
KS Bharat, who featured for India in the World Test Championship [WTC] final last week, will be the frontline wicketkeeper. However, there’s a possibility he won’t be available for the tournament should he be picked in India’s Test squad for the Caribbean tour. Andhra’s Ricky Bhui is the second wicketkeeper in the squad.
South Zone: Hanuma Vihari (capt), Mayank Agarwal (vice-capt), B Sai Sudharsan, Ricky Bhui (wk), KS Bharat (wk), R Samarth, Washington Sundar, Sachin Baby, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Sai Kishore, V Kaverappa, V Vyshak, KV Sasikanth, Darshan Misal, Tilak Varma
Rinku Singh, Dhruv Jurel rewarded on IPL form
Upendra Yadav, who was fast-tracked into the India A setup two years ago, is also part of the squad and is likely to be the first-choice wicketkeeper, with Akshay Wadkar, the Vidarbha captain, next in line. Wadkar, 28, is widely considered to be one of the best wicketkeepers in the country, and has a formidable record to boot – he averages 53.31 across 60 first-class innings with eight hundreds and ten fifties.
Central Zone squad: Shivam Mavi (capt), Vivek Singh, Himanshu Mantri, Kunal Chandela, Shubham Sharma, Amandeep Khare, Rinku Singh, Akshay Wadkar (wk), Upendra Yadav (wk & vice-capt), Dhruv Jurel, Saurabh Kumar, Manav Sathar, Saransh Jain, Avesh Khan, Yash Thakur
Top-heavy West Zone pick four openers
This is why the zonal panel was informed to not consider Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Jaydev Unadkat and Suryakumar Yadav for the tournament.
West Zone squad: Priyank Panchal (capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Harvik Desai (wk), Prithvi Shaw, Het Patel (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Arpit Vasavada, Atit Seth, Shams Mulani, Yuvraj Dodiya, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Chetan Sakariya, Chintan Gaja, Arzan Nagwaswalla
Gun Bengal attack to lead East Zone’s charge
Majumdar played a key role in Bengal’s inspired run to the final, finishing the Ranji season as the third-highest run-scorer with 867 runs in 15 innings at an average of 61.92. Shahbaz Ahmed is the frontline allrounder, with Abishek Porel, Ishan’s cousin, named as the wicketkeeper after Ishan Kishan requested for a break. Wriddhiman Saha did not want to be considered for selection at 40.
East Zone squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt), Santanu Mishra, Sudip Gharami, Riyan Parag, A. Majumdar, Bipin Saurabh, A Porel (wk), K Kushagra (wk), Shahbaz Nadeem (vice-capt), Shahbaz Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Anukul Roy, M Mura Singh, Ishan Porel
J&K’s Abid Mushtaq rewarded for all-round potential
North Zone squad: Mandeep (capt), Prashant Chopra, Dhruv Shorey, Manan Vohra, Prabhsimran Singh, Ankit Kumar, Ankit Kalsi, Himanshu Rana, Abid Mushtaq, Jayant Yadav, Pulkit Narang, Nishant Sandhu, Siddarth Kaul, Vaibhav Arora, Baltej Singh
North-East pick home-grown squad
The selectors have resisted the temptation to pick professional players who feature regularly for the new entrants in the domestic circuit. This explains the absence of key performers such as Chetan Bist or Shrikant Mundhe. Nagaland’s Rongsen Jonathan has been named captain, with Nilesh Lamichaney as his deputy.
North-East Zone squad: Rongsen Jonathan(capt), Nilesh Lamichaney (vice-capt), Kishan Lyngdoh, Langlonyamba, AR Ahlawat, Joseph Lalthankhuma, Prafullamani (wicketkeeper), Dippu Sangma, Jotin Pheiroijam, Imliwati Lemtur, Palzor Tamang, Kishan Singha, Akash Kumar Choudhary, Rajkumar Rex Singh, Nagaho Chishi.
Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
