Duleep Trophy: Shardul to lead West Zone; Shreyas, Jaiswal included

India and Mumbai all-rounder Shardul Thakur was on Friday named the West Zone captain for the Duleep Trophy to be played in September.

The 15-member squad also includes India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, middle-order batters Sarfaraz Khan and Shreyas Iyer as a total of seven Mumbai players have been named in the team.

Ruturaj Gaikwad will bolster the middle-order while Saurashtra's Harvik Desai and Maharashtra's Saurabh Nawale are the wicketkeepers.

The six-team Duleep Trophy is moving back to the zonal format as the tournament will be the 2025-26 domestic season opener with state selectors from respective zones naming the squads. 

The tournament was held between four teams India A, B, C and D picked by the national selectors last year.

South Zone were the winners when the tournament was held in the zonal format last in 2023-24, as they and the West secured direct entries to the semifinals to be held in Bengaluru.

The West Zone squad was selected by the selection committee chaired by Mumbai's Sanjay Patil, Baroda's Prayan Dave, Maharashtra's Akshay Darekar, Sandip Maniyar from Saurashtra Cricket Association and Kirat Damani from the Gujarat Cricket Association.

Mumbai Cricket Association secretary Abhay Hadap was the convener of the meeting.

West Zone squad: Shardul Thakur (Captain, Mumbai), Yashasvi Jaiswal (Mumbai), Aarya Desai (Gujarat), Harvik Desai (wk, Saurashtra), Shreyas Iyer (Mumbai), Sarfaraz Khan (Mumbai), Ruturaj Gaikwad (Maharashtra), Jaymeet Patel (Gujarat), Manan Hingrajia (Gujarat), Saurabh Nawale (wk, Gujarat), Shams Mulani (Mumbai), Tanush Kotian (Mumbai), Dharmandrasinh Jadeja (Saurashtra), Tushar Deshpande (Mumbai), Arzan Nagwaswala (Gujarat).