After being snubbed from the Indian squad for the upcoming West Indies Test tour, Suryakumar Yadav and Cheteshwar Pujara have been included in the West Zone team for the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2023 tournament.
Pujara and Suryakumar have been brought into the West Zone team in place of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad, who were chosen to India’s Test squad for a trip to the Caribbean.
The West Zone team, which also includes players like Sarfaraz Khan and Prithvi Shaw, will continue to be captained by Priyank Panchal, the Gujarat opener.
After scoring 14 and 27 in the World Test Championship final earlier this month, Pujara was not included in India’s Test team. While his absence has sparked discussion and criticism, Pujara himself appears to be looking forward and has started training in his hometown of Rajkot for the upcoming season.
In April, Pujara began his county campaign with a century against Durham. He then added centuries against Gloucestershire and Worcestershire. In the six matches he participated in, he served as the captain for Sussex, scoring 545 runs at an average of 68.12. Later in the summer, he will participate in the Royal London Cup, a 50-over domestic match in England.
Suryakumar Yadav gets another chance to prove himself in red-ball cricket
A return to first-class cricket for Suryakumar would provide him another chance to demonstrate his red-ball prowess. Suryakumar Yadav made his Test debut in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy opener against Australia in February.
He had impressive first-class statistics, including 14 hundreds and 28 half-centuries, and 5557 runs in 133 innings at an average of 44.45.
Suryakumar is part of India’s ODI squad to face West Indies on July 27 in Bridgetown. It’s likely he’ll be part of the T20I series that follows too.
The Duleep Trophy final, though, is set for July 12 so he should still be available for West Zone if they make it there.
West Zone plays their first match in the Duleep Trophy on July 5, when they take on the winners of the Central versus East Zone in the semifinals, at Alur.
West Zone squad for Duleep Trophy 2023:
Priyank Panchal (Captain), Cheteshwar Pujara, Suryakumar Yadav, Harvik Desai (wicketkeeper), Prithvi Shaw, Het Patel (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Khan, Arpit Vasavada, Atit Seth, Shams Mulani, Yuvraj Dodiya, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Chetan Sakariya, Chintan Gaja, Arzan Nagwaswalla.