Ajinkya Rahane set to lead West Zone in upcoming Duleep Trophy

Team India senior batter Ajinkya Rahane is all set to lead the West Zone in the upcoming 2022 Duleep Trophy. The domestic competition is slated to start on September 8 (Thursday) in Tamil Nadu and the final match of the competition will be played on September 25 (Sunday).

At present, the right-handed batter is practicing hard in Mumbai’s off-season camp being held at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s (MCA) indoor nets facility at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). To note, Rahane suffered a hamstring injury during the 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) and stayed out of the action for quite some time.

The senior batter will want to make a solid comeback in the domestic competition and make a return to the Indian team soon.

Prithvi Shaw, Shardul Thakur, and Yashasvi Jaiswal among others to participate in the tournament

Team members of the Ranji Trophy finalist Mumbai, including Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shams Mulani, Hardik Tamore, Tanush Kotian, and Shardul Thakur have already been picked for the tournament. Both Prithvi and Shardul, who have already represented India in white-ball matches, will want to have a good outing in the tournament.

From Saurashtra, senior pacer Jaydev Unadkat has been picked while talented batter Rahul Tripathi, who recently was named in the India squad, is also in the West Zone squad.

The Central Zone has also announced its squad for the tournament with players from Madhya Pradesh’s Ranji Trophy winning squad including Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma, Kumar Kartikeya along with all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer named in the team.

Squads

West Zone: Ajinkya Rahane (c) (Mumbai), 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) (Uttar Pradesh), Shubham Sharma (vc) (Madhya Pradesh), Himanshu Mantri (wk) (Madhya Pradesh), Yash Dubey (Madhya Pradesh), Priyam Garg (Uttar Pradesh), Rinku Singh (Uttar Pradesh), Ashok Menaria (Rajasthan), Akshay Wadkar (wk; Vidarbha), Gaurav Yadav (Madhya Pradesh), Venkatesh Iyer (Madhya Pradesh), Deepak Dhapola (Uttarakhand), Aniket Choudhary (Rajasthan), Kumar Kartikeya (Madhya Pradesh), Aditya Sarwate (Vidarbha), Ankit Rajpoot (Uttar Pradesh).