The Central Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy 2025 was announced on Thursday with India wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel appointed captain.
Jurel recently featured in the Test series against England and impressed with his wicket-keeping. With Rishabh Pant injured, he played the fifth Test at The Oval and scored 19 and 34 runs across both innings of the match.
Notably, Duleep Trophy returns to its traditional zonal format this year and gets underway later this month. Each squad has been picked by a zonal selection panel with representatives from all the states in that zone.
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Also read: No Duleep Trophy for Sanju Samson as Selection Favors Consistent and Commited Performers
Karun Nair Misses Out Because of Finger Injury
While Dhruv Jurel has been picked as the captain, Rajat Patidar, who recently led Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to their maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) title is named his deputy. However, his participation in the tournament is still subject to fitness.
Apart from Jurel and Patidar, the squad features left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who was part of India’s Test squad in England but did not get a game.
In the pace attack, Central Zone will bank on Khaleel Ahmed and Deepak Chahar. Khaleel is back after a county stint, while Chahar returns from an injury that ruled him out of the latter stages of IPL 2025. Both bring valuable experience and variety to the bowling line-up.
One big miss for them is Karun Nair. He had enjoyed a strong Ranji season and made his way back into the Test squad but will now sit out due to a finger injury.
Central Zone will start their campaign against North East Zone on August 28 at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground B in Bengaluru.
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Central Zone Squad for Duleep Trophy 2025
Dhruv Jurel (wk/c), Rajat Patidar (subject to fitness), Aryan Juyal, Danish Malewar, Sanchit Desai, Kuldeep Yadav, Aditya Thakare, Deepak Chahar, Saransh Jain, Ayush Pandey, Shubham Sharma, Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Manav Suthar, Khaleel Ahmed.
Standbys: Madhav Kaushik, Yash Thakur, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Mahipal Lomror, Kuldeep Sen, Upendra Yadav.
Also read: Duleep Trophy 2025: Shubman Gill set to lead North Zone
