Kuldeep, Khaleel in Jurel-led Central Zone squad for Duleep Trophy

After warming the bench through the recent five-match Test series in England, Kuldeep Yadav will return to action in the Duleep Trophy, where he will lead Central Zone's spin attack.

Vidarbha left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey, who broke the record for most wickets in a Ranji Trophy season when he picked up 69 in his side's run to the title in 2024-25, will combine with Kuldeep and Rajasthan's Manav Suthar for Central Zone.

Dhruv Jurel, who had replaced the injured Rishabh Pant in India's series-levelling win at The Oval, will captain Central Zone with Rajat Patidar named his deputy.

Left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed, who had cut his county stint short with Essex for personal reasons will return to action and will lead Central Zone's seam attack along with Deepak Chahar. Chahar, 33, had suffered an injury during IPL 2025 and missed two games for Mumbai Indians, but recently he was bowling at the India nets at Lord's and The Oval.

Yash Rathod, who was the top scorer in the previous Ranji season with 960 runs in 18 innings at an average of over 50, and his Vidarbha team-mate Danish Malewar, who scored 153 and 73 in the final against Kerala, were rewarded for their strong form. UP captain Aryan Juyal also made the cut along with Madhya Pradesh offspinner Saransh Jain and Chhattisgarh batter Sanjeet Desai. Vidarbha's Ranji Trophy-winning coach Usman Ghani was named the head coach of the team.

Fast bowler Kuldeep Sen, who has played a solitary ODI for India, was among the stand-bys.

The Duleep Trophy has reverted to its traditional format of a zonal contest after a season where four teams - A, B, C and D - comprising players in the Test fray were picked by the Ajit Agarkar-led senior men's selection committee. Teams for this year's tournament will be picked by zonal selection committees, comprising one member from each of the state sides from the zone.

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

Dhruv Jurel (capt, wk), Rajat Patidar, Aryan Juyal, Danish Malewar, Sanchit Desai, Kuldeep Yadav, Aditya Thakare, Deepak Chahar, Saransh Jain, Ayush Pandey, Shubham Sharma, Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Manav Suthar, Khaleel Ahmed

Stand-bys: Madhav Kaushik, Yash Thakur, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Mahipal Lomror, Kuldeep Sen, Upendra Yadav