Tilak Varma, having been named in India’s squad for the Asia Cup 2025, will be missing the Duleep Trophy games for the South Zone. Meanwhile, South Zone will also be without the injured R Sai Kishore as they gear up for the semifinal against the North Zone.
South Zone will be missing the services of their captain Tilak Varma and spinner Sai Kishore as they gear up for their semifinal clash against North Zone, with the team naming Puducherry’s Ankit Sharma and Andhra’s Shaik Rasheed as their replacements for the semifinal.
Tilak was named the South Zone captain; however, as he has been named in India’s squad for the Asia Cup 2025, he will be missing the Duleep Trophy matches. Tilak is likely to slot in at No.3 in the tournament that gets underway on September 9.
While Tilak misses due to his India commitments, Sai Kishore has not recovered from the finger injury that he picked up during a first-division club match, which made him miss the Buchi Babu tournament in Chennai.ย
In Tilak’s absence, Kerala wicket-keeper batter Mohammed Azharuddeen will be leading the team as he was the designated vice-captain of the team. Tamil Nadu’s N Jagadeesan has been named the vice-captain.
Meanwhile, Ankit, the Puducherry all-rounder, was the second-highest wicket-taker for his team in the 2024-25 Ranji season, having taken 24 wickets from seven matches. He had also scored a few crucial runs with the bat, having made 216 runs. Meanwhile, Rasheed, who was also with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in IPL 2025, was Andhra’s highest run-scorer in the Ranji season, having racked up 627 runs in 12 innings.
South Zone will be facingย North Zone in the semifinal at theย BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground, Bengaluru, from September 4 onwards. North Zone come into the semis despite their drawn game quarterfinal against East Zone due to their first innings lead.
South Zone squad:
Mohammed Azharuddeen (capt & wk), Tanmay Agarwal, Shaik Rasheed, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohit Kale, Salman Nizar, N Jagadeesan (wk), T Vijay, Ankit Sharma, Tanay Thyagarajan, Vyshak Vijaykumar, MD Nidheesh, Ricky Bhui, Basil NP, Gurjapneet Singh, Snehal Kauthankar.