Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prithvi Shaw and Ruturaj Gaikwad have made it to the West Zone squad for the upcoming Duleep Trophy. The tournament is set to commence from June 28 and among Ranji stars, top IPL performers are also getting picked. Priyank Panchal has been named the skipper of the team that includes Sarfaraz Khan.
Among top IPL performers, Jaiswal's selection is the highlight as he is likely to get a maiden call-up to the Indian team as well for the upcoming West Indies tour. Perhaps, he is being tipped to replace Cheteshwar Pujara in the squad, however, nothing has been made official yet. As for Shaw and Gaikwad, this is a great opportunity to showcase their red-ball skills and stake claim with transition inevitable in the Indian team in the next WTC cycle.
Interestingly, five players from Saurastra's Ranji Trophy winning squad have been selected and they are - Harvik Desai, Arpit Vasavada, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, rookie spinner Yuvraj Dodiya and Chetan Sakariya.
Meanwhile, North Zone squad was also announced on Thursday (June 15) and surprisingly, Mandeep Singh has been appointed the captain of the team. Moreover, former India chief selector Chetan Sharma chaired the selection committee meeting who had to resign from his position following a sting operation from a news channel.
West Zone Squad: Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sarfaraz Khan, Priyank Panchal (C), Harvik Desai, Het Patel, Arpit Vasavada, Atit Seth, Shams Mulani, Yuvraj Dodiya, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Chetan Sakariya, Chintan Gaja, Arzan Nagwaswalla.
North Zone Squad: Mandeep Singh (captain), Prashant Chopra, Dhruv Shorey, Ankit Kalsi, Prabhsimran Singh, Ankit Kumar, Pulkit Narang, Nishant Sindhu, Manan Vohra, Jayant Yadav, Baltej Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Sidharth Kaul and Abid Mushtaq.
(Inputs from PTI)