After being benched in the five-match test series against England, Kuldeep Yadav will be seen in action during the Duleep Trophy 2025 as he is named in the Central Zone Squad led by Dhruv Jurel.

Vidarbha’s left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey, who picked 69 wickets during the Ranji Trophy 2024-25, will be joining Kuldeep Yadav and Manav Suthar in the squad.

With Rishabh Pant being injured, Jurel will be captaining the side and Rajat Patidar has been named as vice-captain.

Khaleel Ahmed who cut short his county stint with Essex due to personal reasons has been named in the squad along with pacer Deepak Chahar.

Chahar who missed two crucial games for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2025, has been recovered and was bowling in the India nets at The Lord’s and The Oval.

Yash Rathod and his Vidarbha teammate Danish Malewar has also claimed spots in the squad for ther impressive Ranji Trophy Campaign last year.

Aryan Juyal along with Saransh Jain and Sanjeet Desai has also been named in the squad.

Central Zone will start their Duleep Trophy 2025 campaign against North East on August 28 at the Central of Excellence in Bengaluru.

The Duleep Trophy has returned to its traditional zonal format a year after being contested as a four-team tournament. Notably, the 2024-25 edition of the tournament featured four teams India A, India B, India C and India D.

India A were crowned champions of the tournament after they have finished at the top of the points table with two wins from three matches, having 12 points to their name.

However, the four-team format was given a thumbs down at the recent BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) Annual General Meeting.

The tournament will be returning to their original format where six teams from as many zones – Central, West, North, South and North East are taking part in the tournament.

Hence, the BCCI has decided to bring back the zonal format to give fair opportunities to all the players.

Central Zone Squad: Dhruv Jurel (C/WK), Rajat Patidar, Aryan Juyal, Danish Malewar, Sanchit Desai, Kuldeep Yadav, Aditya Thakare, Deepak Chahar, Saransh Jain, Ayush Pandey, Ayush Pandey, Shubham Sharma, Yash Rathod, Harshod, Harshod Dubey, Manav Suthar, Khaleel Ahmed