Saurashtra's no.3 batter Jay Gohil has been named replacement for Sarfaraz Khan in West Zone's squad for Duleep Trophy 2026. The 25-year-old Gohil, who was part of the reserves, was added to the squad after Sarfaraz replaced an injured Sai Sudharsan for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka.
"Yes, we've picked Gohil as Sarfaraz's replacement, as he was in the standbys and was consistent in the Ranji Trophy for saurashtra this season," West Zone and Mumbai chief selector Rajesh Pawar told TOI.
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The Ruturaj Gaikwad-led West Zone begin their campaign against North Zone on August 23 at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Mumbai’s Shams Mulani has been named his deputy. The squad features the likes of Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Prithvi Shaw.
Gohils’ first-class stats
Gohil, the Saurashtra batter has played 12 first-class games so far. From 12 games, he has scored 860 runs at an average of 47.77. He has two centuries and four fifties to his name already. In his previous first-class appearance earlier this year, he scored 98 in Saurashtra's win over Chandigarh by an innings and 56 runs.
Gohil has been part of Saurashtra's Ranji Trophy 2022-23 title-winning side. He was dismissed for a single-digit score and a duck in the final by Bengal pacer Akash Deep.
In the 2022-23 season, he scored 337 runs from nine innings, averaging 37.44, including a 227-run knock against Assam.
Sarfaraz's comeback
Sarfaraz has returned to the Test lineup after a long hiatus. The 28-year-old's previous Test appearance was against New Zealand at Wankhede Stadium. He was part of the squad for Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 as well. Later, he was dropped from the Test squad. He has 371 runs from six Tests so far.
West Zone squad for Duleep Trophy 2026 -
Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Shams Mulani (vc), Shardul Thakur, Musheer Khan, Tushar Deshpande, Tanush Kotian, Harvik Desai (wk), Jaymeet Patel, Urvil Patel, Siddharth Desai, Atit Sheth, Prithvi Shaw, Shivalik Sharma, Mukesh Choudhary and Jay Gohil.