Central Zone has made a key change to its squad ahead of the Duleep Trophy 2025 semi-final clash with West Zone, bringing in Vidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar as a replacement for Dhruv Jurel, who has been ruled out due to dengue. Jurel, initially appointed team captain, is sidelined after falling ill, opening the door for Wadkar’s inclusion. This move has attracted attention as Wadkar was controversially omitted during the initial selections despite leading Vidarbha to their third Ranji Trophy title earlier this year.
Central Zone earned their semi-final spot after a commanding first-innings victory over North East Zone in the quarter-final held at Bengaluru. However, they have faced two major setbacks ahead of the semis. Alongside Jurel’s health-related absence, Kuldeep Yadav has also withdrawn owing to his commitments for India’s Asia Cup 2025 campaign. To fill his spot, pacer Yash Thakur originally on standby has been drafted in. Leadership duties will continue to be shouldered by Rajat Patidar, who had played a captain’s innings in the previous round.
Speaking on the squad adjustments, Vidarbha and Central Zone head coach Usman Ghani said,
“Yes, Wadkar has been included in Central Zone team since Jurel is suffering from dengue. He is not available for the next game and we needed one more stumper in the side,” as qouted by CricTracker.
Who is The Replacement?
Akshay Wadkar has notched up an impressive 722 runs in the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season and was pivotal in Vidarbha’s title-winning campaign. Despite his consistent performance and leadership, he was initially overlooked for the Central Zone squad, likely due to the BCCI’s directive favoring players from specific zones, which led to Jurel’s inclusion instead.
A source explained,
“There is that BCCI diktat that asks the teams to give preference to India player if he is available. So, Dhruv Jurel had been included in the squad, and that meant Wadkar, even with his good showing, had to miss the bus. But since Jurel is injured and is not fit for the second match to be played against West Zone from Thursday, Wadkar has been asked to join the squad.”
Central Zone’s Updated Squad for Duleep Trophy 2025
Rajat Patidar (C), Akshay Wadkar, Aryan Juyal, Danish Malewar, Sanjeet Desai, Yash Thakur, Aditya Thakare, Deepak Chahar, Saransh Jain, Ayush Pandey, Shubham Sharma, Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Manav Suthar, Khaleel Ahmed.
Standbys: Madhav Kaushik, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Mahipal Lomror, Kuldeep Sen, Upendra Yadav
