Thursday will mark the beginning of the semis stage of the Duleep Trophy 2025, as North Zone take on South Zone in Bengaluru. Both teams will of course be without some big Indian names, owing to the Asia Cup commitments, but won’t really give an advantage to one side over the other. Having said that, barring the omissions due to the T20I tournament, there could be some, who would be forced, and might cause some trouble to South Zone.
The Arshdeep Singh Factor
One of the biggest names to miss the Duleep Trophy semis would be, left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh. He did play in the previous match vs East Zone, but wasn’t really effective, as he returned with only one wicket. That said, the North Zone team has enough pacers to pick from. Auqib Nabi picked a double hat-trick in the last match. Another J&K pacer Yudhvir Singh Charak could get in too.
Then there is Anshul Kamboj in the side, who was recently picked for the IND vs ENG series; not really Test ready, but still a force to reckon with, in domestic cricket.
Tilak Varma, R Sai Kishore Set to Miss Semis
Left-hand batter Tilak Varma, who was named the skipper of the side, won’t be available for the fixture. Forget batting, what really adds to the pressure is, R Sai Kishore, seasoned spinner is out due to finger injury. Pacer Vijaykumar Vyshak had recently not cleared the fitness test at the CoE, and could sit out as well.
Ankit Sharma and Shaik Rasheed have been named the replacements, but might not be the best changes for the side. In short, the SZ could feel the pinch of the non-available players, more than NZ.
North Zone Squad: Shubham Khajuria, Ankit Kumar(c), Yash Dhull, Ayush Badoni, Nishant Sindhu, Kanhaiya Wadhawan(w), Sahil Lotra, Mayank Dagar, Auqib Nabi Dar, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Anshul Kamboj, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Ankit Kalsi.
South Zone Squad: Tanmay Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohammed Azharuddeen(w), Tilak Varma(c), Ricky Bhui, Snehal Kauthankar, Salman Nizar, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, MD Nidheesh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Tripurana Vijay, N Jagadeesan, Tanay Thyagarajan, Mohit Kale, Nedumankuzhy Basil, Gurjapneet Singh.
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