After battling through a spell of injury woes, India's Test specialist Ajinkya Rahane has been handed an onus to captain a powerful West Zone side in the prestigious Duleep Trophy 2022 which is scheduled to be played from September 8-25 in Tamil Nadu.
As per the reports, Rahane, who is recovering from a groin injury during the 15th edition of Indian Premier Leauge (IPL) 2022 which forced him to stay out of action for sometime, will return to competitive cricket with Duleep Trophy 2022.
However, now the 33-year-old is breaking sweats in Mumbai’s off-season camp being held at the Mumbai Cricket Association’s (MCA) indoor nets facility at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC). Rahane will want to make a solid comeback in the domestic competition and make a return to the Indian team soon.
The members of Ranji finalist Mumbai team, including internationals like Prithvi Shaw and Shardul Thakur and rising stars like Yashashvi Jaiswal, Shams Mulani, Hardik Tamore and Tanush Kotian have all been picked.
From Saurashtra, veteran Jaydev Unadkat has been picked while Rahul Tripathi, who recently made it to national team, is also in the West Zone squad.
Central Zone also announced its squad and most of the stars of Madhya Pradesh's Ranji Trophy-winning team are in the squad, including Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma, Kumar Karthikeya as well as all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer.
Duleep Trophy 2022 Squad
Central Zone: Karan Sharma (c) (Uttar Pradesh), Shubham Sharma (vc) (Madhya Pradesh), Himanshu Mantri (wk) (Madhya Pradesh), Yash Dubey (Madhya Pradesh), Priyam Garg (Uttar Pradesh), Rinku Singh (Uttar Pradesh), Ashok Menaria (Rajasthan), Akshay Wadkar (wk; Vidarbha), Gaurav Yadav (Madhya Pradesh), Venkatesh Iyer (Madhya Pradesh), Deepak Dhapola (Uttarakhand), Aniket Choudhary (Rajasthan), Kumar Kartikeya (Madhya Pradesh), Aditya Sarwate (Vidarbha), Ankit Rajpoot (Uttar Pradesh).
West Zone: Ajinkya Rahane (c) (Mumbai), Prithvi Shaw (Mumbai), Yashasvi Jaiswal (Mumbai), Shreyas Iyer (Mumbai), Hardik Tamore (wk) (Mumbai), Shams Mulani (Mumbai), Tanush Kotian (Mumbai), Shardul Thakur (Mumbai), Rahul Tripathi (Maharashtra), Satyajeet Bachhav (Maharashtra), Het Patel (Gujarat), Chintan Gaja (Gujarat), Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra), Chirag Jani (Saurashtra), Atit Sheth (Baroda).
