The Asia Cup 2025, the upcoming IND A vs AUS A series, and some injuries have ensured that the Duleep Trophy final, that starts on Thursday — between the Central Zone and the South Zone, would be missing all the big stars. At the CoE, while it will be an opportunity for the domestic stars, the absence of known faces would obviously make an impact.
Duleep Trophy final without star players
The likes of Devdutt Padikkal, Khaleel Ahmed are out already.. nonetheless, the replacements have been named, and they have a job at hand. And by the looks of it, it is the Central Zone, that looks more threatening on paper, more so because of their batting.
The team has in-form Danish Malewar, who slammed a ton in thee quarters, followed by skipper Rajat Patidar, and Shubham Sharma. Malewar, the Saurashtra lad has scored 294 runs at an average of 98, while Patidar has 268 in as many matches. Replacement for Dhruv Jurel, Upendra Yadav was at his best when he scored 87 in the semis against West Zone. Shubham has 252 in three innings. So it is all too well for them at the moment.
Central Zone’s in-form batting a threat
Bowling for them isn’t too far behind. Even though they have let go Harsh Dubey, but have Saransh Jain (8 wickets), Deepak Chahar, Aditya Thakare, Kuldeep Sen and even the seasoned Akshay Wadkar. But the South Zone cannot be discounted for their depleted squad either. In the semis vs North Zone, they sprung a major surprise when they out-batted their opponents.
At the centre of it was N Jagadeesan, who scored a massive 197. He would lead his team in the final, on a wicket, that would not have much for the bowlers. Gurjapneet Singh and MD Nidheesh have been their best bowlers so far, and have returned with four and three wickets, respectively.
N Jagadeesan’s team can’t be taken lightly
What could ail the South Zone? Well, for starters they have just played a solitary match, and their bowlers and batters, both, haven’t been tested enough. Skipper Azharuddeen missed out on a big score and so did opener Tanmay Agarwal. The team will miss Padikkal too, who scored a fifty in the last match.
All-in-all, South Zone will have to come up with something special to lift the Duleep Trophy. And it goes without saying that the CoE wicket will once again be a batting paradise, and in all likelihood, the match could be decided over the first innings lead only.
South Zone Squad: Tanmay Agarwal, Smaran Ravichandran, Andre Siddarth C, Mohit Kale, Mohammed Azharuddeen(w/c), Ricky Bhui, Salman Nizar, Tanay Thyagarajan, Gurjapneet Singh, Vasuki Koushik, MD Nidheesh, Nedumankuzhy Basil, Ankit Sharma, Tripurana Vijay, Shaik Rasheed.
Central Zone Squad: Aayush Pandey, Danish Malewar, Shubham Sharma, Rajat Patidar(c), Yash Rathod, Upendra Yadav(w), Nachiket Bhute, Saransh Jain, Sanjeet Desai, Deepak Chahar, Kumar Kartikeya, Aditya Thakare, Kukna Ajay Singh, Akshay Wadkar, Kuldeep Sen.
