experienced Indian batsman Cheteshwar Pujara As far as the Test team is concerned, it became the first victim of BCCI’s possible change plans after the debacle in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC). Despite two successful county matches, Pujara managed to cheat at the highest level as he suffered from poor shots against the moving ball and lack of footwork against Australia at The Oval. As a result, he was dropped from the Test squad for the West Indies series.
Similarly, Suryakumar Yadav, the world’s No. 1 T20I batsman, was also dropped as a standby after being part of the Test squad for the Border-Gavaskar series and the WTC final. Now both Surya and Pujara have been included in the West Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy as two openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad have been called up to the main squad for the West Indies Tests next month.
Jaiswal, who is coming off a sensational season in domestic cricket as well IPLEnjoying his time in the sun and is likely to be given the No.3 spot, Gaikwad played a big role in Chennai Super Kings’ 5th title win in IPL 2023 scoring 590 runs.
Pujara, who opened for India in the rescheduled Test against England at Edgbaston last year in the captain’s absence Rohit Sharma, is likely to partner Priyank Panchal at the top for West Zone. The Duleep Trophy is set to begin on June 28 and the final will be held in Bengaluru on July 12.
West Zone Team: Priyank Panchal (Captain), Cheteshwar Pujara, Suryakumar Yadav, Harvik Desai (wicketkeeper), Prithvi ShawHet Patel (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Arpit Vasavada, Atit Seth, Shams Mulani, Yuvraj Dodiya, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Chetan Sakaria, Chintan Gaja, Arjan Nagwaswala.