Duleep Trophy 2023: Shivam Mavi set for captaincy debut as Central Zone takes on East Zone

Shivam Mavi will make his First-Class captaincy debut with Central Zone through the season-opening Duleep Trophy 2023–24 quarterfinal towards East Zone on the Alur (I) Cricket Ground in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old Mavi featured in simply 4 First-Class matches within the 2022–23 season and has not performed any aggressive sport for the reason that week of his India T20I debut in late January. Mavi, nevertheless, did shine with 19 wickets within the restricted Ranji Trophy matches he performed for Uttar Pradesh final season.

Mavi will discover assist from his deputy Upendra Yadav, who took over as Railways’ red-ball captain final 12 months. While Yadav is more likely to take the wicketkeeping gloves, the Central Zone squad additionally contains three different wicketkeepers: Himanshu Mantri, Akshay Wadkar, and Dhruv Jurel.

Mantri may pair up with Vivek Singh up high, whereas Shubham Sharma, Wadkar, and the high-flying Rinku Singh will agency up the middle-order.

Left-armers Saurabh Kumar, Manav Suthar, and off-spinner Saransh Jain spherical up the spin division. The 20-year-old Suthar had a breakout red-ball season within the previous Ranji Trophy, having picked up 39 wickets from simply six matches for Rajasthan, apart from helpful lower-order contributions with the bat. Avesh Khan and Yash Thakur can be Mavi’s allies in tempo.

Meanwhile, the highlight can be on East Zone skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran, who has slid down the ladder of India’s potential openers within the Test aspect.

The 27-year-old will purpose to proceed his purple patch from the 2022–23 season, the place he hit 4 consecutive First-Class a whole lot for India A and Bengal earlier than putting a season-ending 154 within the Irani Cup in March.

Easwaran will lead a well-recognized pack; six of his 14 East Zone teammates are from Bengal. While the slower bowlers are likely to make merry on the venue, East Zone hosts a sturdy spin assault on paper.

Veteran Shahbaz Nadeem will lead the cost with fellow left-armers Shahbaz Ahmed and Anukul Roy. Akash Deep will lead the seam division on his elevation to the zonal squad after a fruitful Ranji season, the place he emerged because the main wicket-taker (41) amongst pacers.

The staff will, nevertheless, miss the companies of Mukesh Kumar, who was not too long ago drafted into India’s squad for its tour to the West Indies subsequent month. Odisha’s Suryakant Pradhan has changed Mukesh within the staff.

With night showers forecast all through the week, the groups will hope to brace for an impulsive take a look at of smarts within the nice Bengaluru climate.