Laxman to lead South Zone
Mumbai: India Test batsman VVS Laxman has been announced as captain of the South Zone while former India batsman Mohammad Kaif will captain the Central Zone in the forthcoming Duleep Trophy. Both sides will kick off their campaign against each other on January 22 in Bangalore. Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Subramaniam Badrinath, Piyush Chawla and RP Singh are some of the other star players who feature in this contest.
Tamil Nadu, the only team from the south to make it to the Ranji Trophy semi-finals this season, will have five of its players in the South Zone outfit. Laxman, who played only one Ranji Trophy game and scored 224 against Rajasthan, will be joined by fellow Hyderabad mates Anoop Pai and Pragyan Ojha.
Abhinav Mukund has been rewarded for an impressive Ranji season, in which he scored 856 runs at 85.60, with four centuries, Dinesh Karthik dons the gloves on the basis of a strong season, and L Balaji's 36 wickets at 17.50 apiece in his comeback season have earned him a spot. Badrinath and the offspinner R Ashwin, who took 24 Ranji wickets, are the other TN players.
Sreesanth, who has been training hard at the Nation Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru makes a comeback to competitive cricket. He will share the new ball with Laxmipathy Balaji for the South Zone.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Tanmay Srivastava, Uttar Pradesh's leading wicket-taker and run-scorer in the Ranji Trophy, have been included in the Central squad, along with state-mate Shivakant Shukla, who came to prominence this season. Naman Ojha is the wicketkeeper and Piyush Chawla and Murali Kartik make up the spin component. RP Singh, ignored for the Sri Lanka tour, has been included.
South Zone squad: VVS Laxman (capt), S Badrinath, Abhinav Mukund, Robin Uthappa, Rahul Dravid, Arjun Yadav, Dinesh Karthik (wk), R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, L Balaji, Sreesanth, R Vinay Kumar, Saurabh Bandekar, Suresh M, Anoop Pai.
Central Zone squad: Mohammad Kaif (capt), Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Anureet Singh, Robin Bist, Piyush Chawla, Faiz Fazal, Yere Goud, Murali Kartik, Naman Ojha (wk), Pankaj Singh, Parvinder Singh, Jalaj Saxena, Shivakant Shukla, RP Singh, Tanmay Srivastava.
