Veteran batter Saurabh Tiwary has been named the captain of the East Zone team for the upcoming Deodhar Trophy tournament 2023 and Bengal’s Abhimanyu Easwaran will be the vice-captain of the team.
The Deodhar Trophy will mark its return in the 2023-24 domestic cricket season after a hiatus of four years. It is the second major domestic List A tournament held in India after the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Played either in an inter-zonal format or handpicked India A, B and C teams, the Deodhar Trophy offers a chance to look at the upcoming 50-over stars in the country.
The tournament will feature six zones– North Zone, South Zone, Central Zone, North East Zone, West Zone and East Zone, a comeback to the zonal format for the first time since the 2014-15 season.
The Deodhar Trophy was introduced in 1973 and named in honor of Dinkar Balwant Deodhar, who compiled 4522 runs in 81 First-Class matches with a best of 246. He played First-Class cricket before the First World War and after the Second World War in a career spanning between 1911-12 and 1947-48.
He was also the president of the Maharashtra Cricket Association, vice president of the BCCI and former national selector. He passed away at the age of 101 in 1993.
Saurabh Tiwary Captain And Abhimanyu Easwaran Vice-Captain Of East Zone In Deodhar Trophy
The Deodhar Trophy 2023 starts from July 24 with all matches slated to take place in Pondicherry. The final will be held at the Siechem Stadium on August 3.
The six-team tournament will be played in a round-robin where all six teams will face one another across five rounds of group-stage matches. The top two teams in the league stage will then directly proceed to the final.
East Zone will open their campaign against Central Zone on July 24.
The East Zone features Saurabh Tiwary as captain and Abhimanyu Easwaran as vice-captain. The team also features names such as Abhishek Porel, Virat Singh, Riyan Parag, Shahbaz Ahmed and others.
East Zone squad: Saurabh Tiwary (c), Abhimanyu Easwaran (vc), Sudip Gharami, Subhranshu Senapati, Reshab Das, Utkarsh Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Abishek Porel, Virat Singh, Riyan Parag, Shahbaz Ahmed, Avinav Chowdhury, Mura Singh, Muktar Hussain, Akash Deep