Key Points

Harsh Dubey, Yash Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed and Manav Suthar called up to India ‘A’ squad for the multi-day series against Australia ‘A’, to be played from September 16-19 and September 23-26 at the BRSABV Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.

As a result, Vidarbha pacer Nachiket Bhute, Rajasthan’s left-arm spinner Ajay Singh Kukna, along with Madhya Pradesh left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya Singh and pacer Kuldeep Sen have been drafted into the Central Zone squad.

Rajat Patidar will continue to captain Central Zone, as Dhruv Jurel has been called up to the India ‘A’ squad as the vice-captain. Central Zone drew with the West Zone but advanced to the final on the basis of taking their first-innings lead.

Meanwhile, South Zone have made changes to their squad for the Duleep Trophy final. South Zone drew their semifinal against the North Zone, but qualified for the final on the basis of taking a first innings lead.

With N Jagadeesan and Devdutt Padikkal picked for the India ‘A’ squad for the red-ball games against Australia ‘A’, the selectors have brought in Tamil Nadu batter Andre Siddarth and Karnataka batter Smaran Ravichandran as replacements.

Ajay Rohera (Pondicherry) and Aniket Reddy (Hyderabad) have been added to stand-by players for the title clash. South Zone will continue to be captained by Mohammed Azharuddeen, with Ricky Bhui named as vice-captain.

Central Zone updated squad: Rajat Patidar (c), Ayush Pandey, Danish Malewar, Shubham Sharma, Sanchit Desai, Yash Rathod, Nachiket Bhute, Kumar Kartikeya Singh, Aditya Thakare, Upendra Yadav (wk), Ajay Singh Kukna, Akshay Wadkar (wk), Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Sen, Saransh Jain.

- IANS