Tilak Varma to captain South Zone in the 2025 Edition of Duleep Trophy

India batter N Tilak Varma was on Sunday named as the South Zone skipper in the season-opening Duleep Trophy to be held here next month.

The 22-year-old Tilak, who has played four ODIs and 25 T20Is, was in fine touch for Hampshire recently, smashing 100, 56, 47 and 112 in four innings for the English county side.

Kerala players were rewarded for their excellent run till the Ranji Trophy final as four players from the state found place in the 16-member squad.

They were: Mohammed Azharuddeen, who will be Tilak's deputy, MD Nidheesh, Basil NP and Salman Nizar.

Tamil Nadu batter Narayan Jagadeesan, who has flown to England as a cover for the injured Rishabh Pant, senior left-arm spinner R Sai  Kishore and middle-order batter Devdutt Padikkal too are in the squad.

India and Karnataka pacer Vyshak Vijaykumar will lead the South Zone bowling attack.

Meanwhile, prolific batter R Smaran, who was Karnataka's highest run-getter in last season's Ranji Trophy with 516 runs, has been included as a standby, possibly because of the unspecified injury that he picked up in May that prevented him from joining IPL side Sunrisers Hyderabad.

This year the Duleep Trophy will return to the Zonal format between six teams, deviating from the previous years' set-up of India A, B, C and D.

The senior national selectors picked the sides when the tournament was played in the A, B, C and D format, but now the teams will be picked by respective zone selectors.

The four-day tournament will be played here at the BCCI Centre of Excellence grounds from August 28.

North Zone will face East Zone while Central Zone will take on North East Zone in the quarterfinal matches.

South Zone and West Zone have got a direct entry into the semifinals.

South Zone squad: Tilak Varma (captain), Mohammed Azharuddeen (vice-captain), Tanmay Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohit Kale, Salman Nizar, Narayan Jagadeesan, T. Vijay (Andhra), R Sai Kishore, Tanay Thyagarajan, Vyshak Vijaykumar, MD Nidheesh, Ricky Bhui,  Basil NP, Gurjapneet Singh, Snehal Kauthankar.

Stand-by: Mohit Redkar, R Smaran, Ankit Sharma, Edhen Apple Tom, Andre Siddarth, Shaikh Rasheed.