India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal departed early in the Duleep Trophy 2025 semifinal clash between West Zone and Central Zone. Jaiswal, who faced snub from selectors for the T20 World Cup 2025 and named in non-travelling reserves/standby players, could not do well in his first game since the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 on England soil.
After West Zone captain Shardul Thakur won the toss and opted to bat first, Jaiswal walked out to open alongside Harvik Desai. On the third ball of the first over bowled by left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed, Jaiswal got out lbw. Before losing his wicket, Jaiswal hit a boundary in his three-ball stay at the crease.
Jaiswal’s opening partner Desai could not survive the new ball either. He lost his wicket to Deepak Chahar in the fourth over after scoring just one run from four deliveries.
After two early wickets, Aarya Desai and Ruturaj Gaikwad steadied the ship. They survived new ball spells from Ahmed and Chahar. Gaikwad was recently seen playing in the Buchi Babu invitational tournament.
The partnership was broken by Harsh Dubey before the lunch break. Aarya scored 39 runs from 84 balls, including six fours. Aarya and Gaikwad shared an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Gaikwad reached his fifty from 72 balls.
After the first session, West Zone were 116/3 from 32 overs. Gaikwad was batting on 55 off 86 balls with Shreyas Iyer on the other end. Iyer was batting on 14 off 16 balls.
West Zone Playing XI -
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Aarya Desai, Shreyas Iyer, Harvik Desai (wk), Shams Mulani, Shardul Thakur (c), Tanush Kotian, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Arzan Nagwaswalla, Tushar Deshpande.
Central Zone Playing XI -
Aayush Pandey, Upendra Yadav (wk), Danish Malewar, Rajat Patidar (c), Yash Rathod, Shubham Sharma, Harsh Dubey, Saransh Jain, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Thakur,