Ajinkya Rahane set to lead West Zone in Duleep Trophy


image-l77vzoi0Ajinkya Rahane in Test action for India (Twitter)

Ajinkya Rahane is set to make a comeback to competitive cricket, as the veteran batter has been appointed to lead the West Zone in the upcoming Duleep Trophy season.

The tournament marks his first set of matches since he sustained a hamstring injury in an IPL 2022 game against the SRH. The 34-year-old also lost his spot from India’s Test side earlier this year.

Fit-again Rahane returns to competitive cricket

Ajinkya Rahane has been selected as the captain of a 15-player West Zone squad for Duleep Trophy 2022 season. The senior warhorse is joined by several of his Mumbai teammates in the group, including the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Prithvi Shaw as well as this year’s Ranji Trophy stars Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shams Mulani.

The Central Zone have also announced their line-up for the event. Karan Sharma is set to lead the side which features numerous cricketers from 2022 Ranji Trophy-winning team Madhya Pradesh.

The upcoming Duleep Trophy is scheduled to be conducted between September 8 and September 25 in Tamil Nadu. Here is a look at the entire squads for West Zone as well as Central Zone.

West Zone:

Ajinkya Rahane (c), Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Tamore (wk), Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Shardul Thakur, Rahul Tripathi, Satyajeet Bachhav, Het Patel, Chintan Gaja, Jaydev Unadkat, Chirag Jani and Atit Sheth. 

Central Zone:

Karan Sharma (c), Shubham Sharma (vc), Himanshu Mantri (wk), Yash Dubey, Priyam Garg, Rinku Singh, Ashok Menaria, Akshay Wadkar (wk), Gaurav Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Dhopola, Aniket Chaudhary, Kumar Kartikey, Aditya Sarvatey and Ankit Rajput.

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