Duleep Trophy 2026: South Zone vs North Zone, 2nd Semi-Final Match Preview

South Zone lock horns with North Zone in the second semi-final of the Duleep Trophy 2026 at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 2 in Bengaluru. This game gets underway on Sunday, August 30.

Tilak Varma is set to lead a strong South Zone side. They received a bye in the quarters. N Jagadeesan, Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal, and Ricky Bhui are players to watch out for apart from the captain. Keep an eye on V Kaverappa, who could cause a lot of damage with the new ball.

Meanwhile, North Zone would be high on confidence after beating a formidable West Zone side in the quarters. In a low-scoring encounter, North Zone won by 52 runs. Abid Mushtaq was the Player of the Match after picking up nine wickets across the two innings. Arshdeep Singh also gave him good support. In the batting department, Ayush Badoni notched up half-centuries in both innings. Anshul Kamboj also impressed with the bat and fared decently with the ball.

SZ vs NZ: Match Details

BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 2, Bengaluru: Pitch Report

The BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 2 hosted the first quarter-final between East Zone and North East Zone. There was ample movement for the pacers upfront on Day 1 but conditions improved for batting as the game went on. The pitch for the semi-final is expected to be similar. The team batting first, their openers, will have to grind it out in the first couple of sessions.

SZ vs NZ: Head-to-Head Record in Tests

SZ vs NZ: Predicted Playing 11s

South Zone

SK Rasheed, Narayan Jagadeesan (WK), Ravichandran Smraran, Karun Nair, Tilak Varma (C), Ricky Bhui, Aman Khan, Shreyas Gopal, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Tanay Thyagarajan, MD Nidheesh.

North Zone

Qamran Iqbal, Yash Dhull/Sanat Sangwan, Ayush Doseja, Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, Kanhaiya Wadhawan (C & WK), Nishant Sindhu, Abid Mushtaq, Anshul Kamboj, Gurnoor Brar, Arshdeep Singh.