Mohammed Shami in East Zone squad for Duleep Trophy

Mohammed Shami has been named in the East Zone squad for the 2025-26 Duleep Trophy.

Ishan Kishan, who scored two half-centuries in two innings for Nottinghamshire in the ongoing County Championship Division One, was named captain of the 15-member squad, which also included Akash Deep, Mukesh Kumar and Riyan Parag. Abhimanyu Easwaran, part of India's Test squad in England, was named vice-captain.

Fourteen-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who struck the fastest century in youth ODIs on India Under-19's tour of England last month, was among the six standbys.

Shami, 34, was last in action in IPL 2025, where he picked up six wickets in nine matches for his new team Sunrisers Hyderabad. His last first-class game was for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy in November 2024. That was his only red-ball outing since his last Test match for India - the World Test Championship final in June 2023.

There was no place in the East Zone squad for Sudip Chatterjee, Bengal's leading run-getter in last season's Ranji Trophy, while Sudip Kumar Gharami, their second highest run-getter, was part of the standbys.

Virat Singh and Sharandeep Singh, Jharkhand's top-two run-scorers in the previous Ranji Trophy, were part of the squad, as well as left-arm spinner Manishi, who took 22 wickets in seven matches.

The six-team Duleep Trophy is returning to the zonal format, with squads picked by the zonal selectors, and the tournament will kickstart the 2025-26 domestic season. Last season, the tournament had four teams - India A, B, C and D - that were picked by the national selectors. East Zone will play the domestic season's opening game against North Zone from August 28 at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.

East Zone squad

Ishan Kishan (capt), Abhimanyu Easwaran (vc), Sandeep Patnaik, Virat Singh, Denish Das, Sridam Paul, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Riyan Parag, Utkarsh Singh, Manishi, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Shami
Standbys: Mukhtar Hussain, Aasirwad Swain, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Swastik Samal, Sudip Kumar Gharami, Rahul Singh