Duleep Trophy: Mandeep Singh named North Zone captain, Priyank Panchal to lead West Zone

New Delhi, June 15 (IANS) Punjab batter Mandeep Singh was on Thursday named as skipper of North Zone side for the Duleep Trophy, while Gujarat opener Priyank Panchal has been made the captain of the West Zone team.

Alongside Panchal, Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad are the other openers in the West Zone team. Other prominent squad members include Harvik Desai, Sarfaraz Khan, Arpit Vasavada, Atit Sheth, Shams Mulani, Chetan Sakariya and Arzan Nagwaswalla.

Meanwhile, in the North Zone team, the batting line-up boasts of a strong look in Dhruv Shorey, Prashant Chopra, Prabhsimran Singh, Manan Vohra, Ankit Kumar, and Ankit Kalsi. But there is no place for young batter Yash Dhull.

The fast bowlers include Sidharth Kaul alongside Baltej Singh, Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana, while Jayant Yadav, Pulkit Narang and Abid Mushtaq complete the spin bowling department. Narang was recently a net bowler with the Indian team for the World Test Championship final last week in London.

Earlier, Hanuma Vihari was named the captain of the South Zone team, with Mayank Agarwal as his deputy. Other members include Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma and wicket-keeper KS Bharat, who recently played for India in the WTC Final.

India A captain and Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran was named as skipper of the East Zone team, with left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem serving as his deputy. Other notable players include Sudip Gharami, Riyan Parag, Abishek Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Anukul Roy and Ishan Porel.

Fast bowler Shivam Mavi will be leading the Central Zone, with Rinku Singh, Dhruv Jurel, Saurabh Kumar, Upendra Yadav, Avesh Khan and Yash Thakur being other prominent members in the team. Nagaland's batting all-rounder Rongsen Jonathan will be captaining the Northeast zone side, with Sikkim's Nilesh Lamichaney named as the vice-captain.

The Duleep Trophy will kickstart the 2023-24 men's Indian domestic cricket season. All matches are scheduled to be held in Alur Cricket Stadium and M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru from June 28 to July 16.

While defending champions West Zone and South Zone get a direct entry into the semi-finals, Central Zone, North Zone, North East Zone and East Zone will feature in quarterfinal matches.

North Zone Squad: Mandeep Singh (c), Prashant Chopra, Dhruv Shorey, Manan Vohra, Prabhsimran Singh, Ankit Kumar, Ankit Kalsi, Harshit Rana, Abid Mushtaq, Jayant Yadav, Pulkit Narang, Nishant Sandhu, Sidharth Kaul, Vaibhav Arora, Baltej Singh

Standbys: Mayank Markande, Mayank Dagar, Divij Mehra, Anmol Malhotra, Diwesh Pathania, Ravi Chouhan, Kunal Mahajan, Nehal Wadhera.

West Zone squad: Priyank Panchal (captain), Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Harvik Desai (wicketkeeper), Het Patel (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Arpit Vasavada, Atit Seth, Shams Mulani, Yuvraj Dodiya, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Chetan Sakariya, Chintan Gaja, Arzan Nagwaswalla

Standby players: Chirag Jani, Tushar Deshpande, Sheldon Jackson, Kedar Jadhav, Siddarth Desai