Left-arm seamer Chetan Sakariya has been ruled out of the 2023 Duleep Trophy with an injury and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) pacer Tushar Deshpande has been named as a replacement in the West Zone squad. The right-arm paceman Deshpande will be seen in action when West Zone takes on Central Zone on July 5.
Deshpande was in superb form in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 and played an instrumental role in MS Dhoni's side winning their record-tying fifth title. Deshpande bowled with pace, swung the new ball and became the go-to bowler on many occasions for Dhoni. In IPL 2023, Deshpande was CSK's highest wicket-taker as he finished the competition with 21 wickets in 16 matches.
The Mumbai pacer, who bagged 23 wickets in the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy season, had earlier voiced his surprise after he was snubbed from West Zone's squad.
"I am in top form, bowling at 140kmph plus consistently and taking wickets. Not only me, everyone was expecting my name in the West Zone team. It’s surprising to not be part of the squad," mid-day quoted Deshpande as saying.
Earlier, Cheteshwar Pujara and Suryakumar Yadav were roped into the West Zone squad as replacements for Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad. Both Jaiswal and Gaikwad are part of India's Test squad for the West Indies series which is scheduled to begin on July 12. Apart from Deshpande and Suryakumar, Prithvi Shaw Shams Mulani and Sarfaraz Khan are the other players from Mumbai who are included in the West Zone squad. Gujarat's Priyank Panchal will lead the side.
West Zone Squad: Prithvi Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sarfaraz Khan, Priyank Panchal (C), Harvik Desai, Het Patel, Arpit Vasavada, Atit Seth, Shams Mulani, Yuvraj Dodiya, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande, Chintan Gaja, Arzan Nagwaswalla.
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