South Zone has made two changes to their Duleep Trophy semifinal squad. Captain Tilak Varma will not play, as the match starts on September 4, when Team India departs for the Asia Cup. Sai Kishore is out with a finger injury.
South Zone names replacement for Tilak Varma
Kerala’s Mohammed Azharuddeen, initially named vice-captain, takes over from Tilak as skipper. Tamil Nadu’s N Jagadeesan becomes Azharuddeen’s deputy. Andhra’s Shaik Rasheed replaces Tilak, while Puducherry’s Ankit Sharma fills Kishore’s spot.
South Zone’s selector had decided to name Tilak as captain despite uncertainty over his participation. Meanwhile, they didn’t include KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Sai Sudharsan, and Prasidh Krishna in their Duleep Trophy squad.
The move had irked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), who wrote an email regarding the matter as well. But the South Zone have stuck to their guns, stating that they are rewarding domestic performers. And even now, when Tilak and Kishore have been ruled out, they have decided to include none of the Test stars.
Since Siraj and Sundar have reported to the Centre of Excellence (CoE) and can be added to the South Zone’s squad even at the last minute. Right now, it doesn’t look like that’ll happen. But since the first semifinal will be played on September 4, there are a couple of days for that to change.
Maybe the BCCI will ask the South Zone to reconsider once again. By then, perhaps even Rahul, Sudharsan, and Prasidh might report to the CoE as well.
South Zone squad for Duleep Trophy
Mohammed Azharuddeen (c & wk), Tanmay Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohit Kale, Salman Nizar, N Jagadeesan (vc & wk), T Vijay, R Sai Kishore, Tanay Thyagarajan, Vyshak Vijaykumar, MD Nidheesh, Ricky Bhui, Basil NP, Gurjapneet Singh, Snehal Kauthankar, Ankit Kumar, Shaik Rasheed
