Duleep Trophy 2026-27: West Zone announce star-studded squad, Ruturaj Gaikwad named captain | Cricket News
MUMBAI: In a lifeline to his career which slided down after an initial high, Prithvi Shaw was on Monday picked for the West Zone Duleep Trophy squad following an impressive performance for Maharashtra last domestic season.The squad was announced on Monday following a meeting of the West Zone selection committee, which was chaired by Mumbai’s new chief selector Rajesh Pawar.The Duleep Trophy traditionally kicks off the domestic season. Like last season, the competition will be played from Aug 23 to Sept 10 at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) grounds in Bengaluru. India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was a part of the West Zone side last year, will of course miss the tournament this time as India will be touring Sri Lanka for a two-Test series during that time, while batter Shreyas Iyer too isn’t a part of the squad. Shaw moved to Maharashtra from Mumbai last season, and finished the Ranji Trophy as thw highest run-getter for his new team, scoring 537 runs in seven matches @48.81, with one hundred and three fifties. His highest score was a blazing 156-ball 222 against Chandigarh, a knock during which he smashed the third fastest double century in the history of the Ranji Trophy.The 26-year-old was not picked in the West Zone team for the Duleep Trophy last season after enduring ordinary season for Mumbai during which he was dropped due to poor fitness.“Prithvi scored more than 500 runs for Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy last year. We all know about his enormous talent. He is still 26 and can still make a comeback to the Indian team one day You never know!,” Rajesh Pawar told TOI.Rated as a highly talented batsman when he started out, Shaw, who made a sensational Test debut when he scored a century (134) against West Indies in 2018 at Rajkot at the age of 18, played the last of his five Tests (339 runs@42.37, including two half-centuries too) at Adelaide (pink-ball Test) in 2020. Meanwhile, seasoned India batter Ruturaj Gaikwad has been named as the captain of the West Zone squad for the upcoming Duleep Trophy, with Mumbai’s prolific left-arm spin-bowling all-rounder Shams Mulani will be the vice-captain. Last season, veteran India seam-bowling all-rounder and Mumbai captain Shardul Thakur led West Zone, which lost to Central Zone in the semifinals of the competition on the basis of first-innings lead. Gaikwad allso leads Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the IPL and was recently in the India ‘A’ squad for the 50-over tri-series and red-ball games against Sri Lanka ‘A’.Harvik Desai and Urvil Patel are the two wicketkepeers in the squad. Apart from Gaikwad, former Mumbai and current Maharashtra opener Prithvi Shaw and Mumbai’s Khan brothers, Sarfaraz and Musheer, have been included.Gujarat’s Jaymeet Patel and Baroda left-hander Shivalik Sharma are the other batters in the side.Mumbai’s off-spinning allrounder Tanush KotiaApart from Mulani and Gujarat’s left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai are the orher spinners in the squad. The fast-bowling department will include Thakur alongside Mumbai speedster Tushar Deshpande, Maharashtra left-arm pacer Mukesh Chaudhary, and Baroda all-rounder Atit Sheth. The selectors have also named a six-member standby list. The standby players include Jay Gohil, Aarya Desai, Arshin Kulkarni, Mahesh Pithiya, Vishal Jayswal and Rajvardhan Hangargekar.West Zone squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Shams Mulani (vice-captain), Harvik Desai (wk), Urvil Patel (wk), Jaymeet Patel, Prithvi Shaw, Shivalik Sharma, Siddharth Desai, Sarfaraz Khan, Musheer Khan, Atit Sheth, Mukesh Chaudhary, Tanush Kotian, Shardul Thakur, and Tushar Deshpande.
