Azharuddeen to lead South Zone in Duleep Trophy semifinals

Kerala batter Mohammed Azharuddeen on Sunday replaced Tilak Varma as the South Zone captain for the Duleep Trophy semifinal against North Zone, starting at the BCCI Centre of Excellence on September 4.

Tilak Varma, who was originally named the South skipper, will not be playing the Duleep Trophy after he was named in the India squad for the upcoming Asia Cup.

Azharuddeen was the vice-captain of the side, and now that role has been handed to Tamil Nadu’s N Jagadeesan. Tamil Nadu left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore too will not be playing in the semifinal for South Zone as he is still recuperating from a hand injury that forced him to skip the recent Buchi Babu Trophy.

Ankit Sharma of Puducherry and Shaikh Rasheed of Andhra have been added to the South squad for the Duleep Trophy last four match. Both the players were already named in the standbys. Ankit is a left-arm spinner who has taken 168 wickets from 68 First-Class matches, while Rasheed is a 20-year-old top-order batter who has made 1204 runs from 19 Ranji Trophy games. He was drafted in by Chennai Super Kings during IPL 2025.

Revised South Zone squad: Mohammed Azharuddeen (Captain), Tanmay Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohit Kale, Salman Nizar, Narayan Jagadeesan, Tripurana Vijay, Tanay Thyagarajan, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Nidheesh MD, Ricky Bhui, Basil NP, Gurjapneet Singh, Snehal Kauthankar, Ankit Sharma, Shaikh Rasheed. Standbys: Mohit Redkar, R Smaran, Edhen Apple Tom, Andre Siddarth.