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Duleep Trophy: Azharuddeen to captain South Zone in semi-final against North Zone

Bengaluru, Aug 31 (IANS) Kerala batter Mohammed Azharuddeen has been named as captain of South Zone team for their Duleep Trophy semifinal against North Zone, starting on September 4 at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE) Grounds.

Azharuddeen replaces left-handed batter Tilak Varma, who was originally appointed as South Zone’s skipper, but has now been withdrawn from the tournament after being included in India’s squad for the upcoming Men’s T20 Asia Cup, to be held in the UAE from September 9-28.

Tamil Nadu’s wicketkeeper-batter N. Jagadeesan, who was called up to India’s Test squad for the fifth game against England at The Oval as Rishabh Pant’s replacement, will serve as South Zone’s vice-captain.

South Zone will also be without left-arm spinner R. Sai Kishore, who continues to recover from a hand injury that had earlier ruled him out of the ongoing Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament in Chennai.

In his absence, Puducherry’s left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma and Andhra’s top-order batter Shaik Rasheed have been drafted into the squad. Both were previously named in the standby players’ list.

Ankit has claimed 168 wickets in 68 first-class matches, while Rasheed has scored 1,204 runs from 19 Ranji Trophy games and amassed 71 runs in five games for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2025.

While South Zone will take on Ankit Kumar-led North Zone in the second semifinal, Central Zone are set to meet West Zone, captained by Shardul Thakur, in the other last four clash of the Duleep Trophy.

South Zone squad: Mohammed Azharuddeen (c), Tanmay Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohit Kale, Salman Nizar, Narayan Jagadeesan, Tripurana Vijay, Tanay Thyagarajan, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Nidheesh MD, Ricky Bhui, Basil NP, Gurjapneet Singh, Snehal Kauthankar, Ankit Sharma, and Shaikh Rasheed.

Standbys: Mohit Redkar, R. Smaran, Edhen Apple Tom, and Andre Siddarth.

- IANS