India's wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel has suffered dengue and is ruled out of the Duleep Trophy 2025 semifinal between West Zone and Central Zone starting September 4.
Jurel is among the five standbys for the T20 Asia Cup 2025. Earlier, it was reported that Jurel missed the Duleep Trophy 2025 quarterfinal clash against North East Zone due to a niggle and was asked by selectors to skip the game to avoid an injury.
In Jurel’s absence, Rajat Patidar led Central Zone against North East Zone. Patidar scored a blazing 96-ball 125 and followed it up with a 72-ball 62. Central Zone advanced to the semifinal on the basis of first innings lead. In the semifinal clash against Shardul Thakur's West Zone, Patidar will lead Central Zone.
Jurel’s replacement from Vidarbha -
31-year-old wicketkeeper-batter Akshay Wadkar has been named Jurel's replacement for the semifinal. In the previous Ranji Trophy season, he was seventh-highest run-scorer. He scored 722 runs from 10 games at an average of 45.12, including two centuries and two fifties.
Overall, Vidarbha's Wadkar has played 61 first-class games and scored 3,865 runs at an average of 48.92, including 11 centuries and 19 fifties.
Central Zone’s updated squad
Aayush Pandey, Aryan Juyal (wk), Danish Malewar, Rajat Patidar (c), Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Aditya Thakare, Khaleel Ahmed, Shubham Sharma, Sanjeet Desai, Manav Suthar, Akshay Wadkar, Saransh Jain.
Replacement for standby unlikely
Meanwhile, the selectors may not name Jurel’s replacement in the standbys. In the current squad, there are two wicketkeeper-batters in Sanju Samson and Jitesh Sharma. All the five players -- Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag, and Jurel – named in standbys were non-travelling reserves for the tournament in UAE.
India’s T20 Asia Cup 2025 squad -
Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (wk), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.