After leading Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2023, Nitish Rana has been rewarded with a captain's role in India's domestic tournament - Deodhar Trophy. Rana was recently ignored for India's T20I squad for West Indies Tour and he was seemingly dejected over it. Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals' batter Prithvi Shaw has been included in the West Zone squad for the zonal tournament.
Rana will be leading the 15-member North Zone squad in the upcoming 50-over tournament - Deodhar Trophy. Rana has not featured in any domestic tournaments or Indian matches after the completion of IPL 2023. Notably, his North Zone team features the likes of young Indian rising stars Abhishek Sharma, Prabhsimran, Nishant Sindhu and Harshit Rana, among others.
Prithvi Shaw, Shivam Dube in for West Zone
Notably, DC's Prithvi Shaw and CSK's Shivam Dube are included in the West Zone squad along with SRH's Rahul Tripathi. Dube had a terrific IPL season for the title-winning CSK and was the vital cog in MS Dhoni's team to win the title for the fifth time.
Abhishek, Prabhsimran, Harshit may join North later
Notably, Abhishek Sharma, wicketkeeper batter Prabhsimran Singh and Harshit Rana, who are part of India's squad for the Emerging Teams Asia Cup, might be joining the North squad one day late. This is due to the reason that there is hardly any gap between the end of the Emerging Asia Cup and the start of the Deodhar Trophy. The Emerging Asia Cup will be played from July 13 to July 23, whereas the zonal tournament will kick start from July 24.
West Zone squad:
Priyank Panchal (captain), Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tripathi, Harvik Desai, Het Patel, Sarfaraz Khan, Ankit Bawne, Samarth Vyas, Shivam Dube, Atit Seth, Parth Bhut, Shams Mulani, Arzan Nagwaswalla, Chintan Gaja, Rajvardhan Hangargekar.
Standby players: Chetan Sakariya, Tushar Deshpande, Yuvraj Dodiya, Abu Kazi, Kathan Patel.
North Zone squad:
Nitish Rana (Captain), Abhishek Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh, SG Rohilla, S Khajuria, Mandeep Singh, Himanshu Rana, Vivrant Sharma, Nishant Sindhu, Rishi Dhawan, Yudhvir Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande.
Stand-bye players: Mayank Dagar, Mayank Yadav, Arslan Khan, Shubham Arora, Yuvraj Singh, Manan Vohra, Aqib Nabi, Shivank Vashisht.