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Team India batter and the leader of the IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Ruturaj Gaikwad, has been named as the captain for the West Zone for the upcoming Duleep Trophy season, starting from August 23 with the final round on September 10. All of the matches will be played at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) grounds in Bengaluru.
Last year, pace-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur was in charge of leading the West Zone cricket team. Under his leadership, the team reached the semi-finals, but failed to book their spot in the final.
Shams Mulani has been appointed as Ruturaj Gaikwad's deputy
With the target to take a step forward in the tournament, the selectors of the West Zone team named a star-studded team with Ruturaj Gaikwad as their captain, who is also the captain of the Chennai Super Kings. Samson Mulani has been named as the deputy of Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Prithvi Shaw, Urvil Patel, Sarfaraz Khan, Musheer Khan, Mukesh Chaudhary, Tanush Kotian, Shardul Thakur, and Tushar Deshpande are the other well-known faces who are included in the squad for the upcoming domestic tournament.
As the standby players, the officials have named a batch of 6 players across the states from the southern part of the nation.
An overall well-balanced squad set by the West Zone for the upcoming Duleep Trophy.
The batting unit of the team looks solid and pretty promising as the team selectors tried to create a balanced group of batters where youth and experience could mix swiftly. With the presence of Ruturaj Gaikwad, who recently featured for the India A cricket team in Sri Lanka and batted gracefully.
Inclusions of the emerging talents like Urvil Patel, Harvik Desai, Shivalik Sharma, and Siddharth Desai dynamically shape the team combination. Prithvi Shaw's presence is surprising. The batter, who was picked by the Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2026 players' auction, did not feature in a single match in the season for the franchise, has been named for the upcoming Duleep Trophy squad.
The pace attack of the team is mostly dependent on the experienced candidates in the likes of Shardul, Tushar Deshpande, Mukesh Chaudhary and Baroda’s Atit Seth. Shardul will have to spearhead the team's pace bowling line-up as the senior-most pace bowling all-rounder of the team.
For the spin bowling duties, Mulani and Kotian will have to take most of the responsibilities.
According to the schedule of the tournament, West Zone will begin their campaign against North Zone in the second quarter-final from August 23 to 27. The winner of the match will take on South Zone in the semi-final, which is scheduled to start on August 29.
West Zone squad for Duleep Trophy:
Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Shams Mulani (vice-captain), Harvik Desai (wk), Urvil Patel (wk), Jaymeet Patel, Prithvi Shaw, Shivalik Sharma, Siddharth Desai, Sarfaraz Khan, Musheer Khan, Atit Sheth, Mukesh Chaudhary, Tanush Kotian, Shardul Thakur, and Tushar Deshpande.
Reserve players: Arya Desai (Gujarat), Jay Gohil (Saurashtra), Arshin Kulkarni (Maharashtra), Mahesh Pithiya (Baroda), Rajvardhan Hangargekar (Maharashtra), Vishal Jayswa (Gujarat)
