Wadkar, Sarvate in CZ team

 

 

VIDARBHA Ranji Trophy vice-captain and stumper Akshay Wadkar and all-rounder Aditya Sarvate have been selected in Central Zone squad for the prestigious Duleep Trophy cricket tournament conducted by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

The prestigious Duleep Trophy is back in the calendar in its old zonal format after three years. It will be the first tournament of the Indian domestic season starting from September 8.

“It was not easy for Vidarbha Ranji players and I have to put a good fight for their selection. I clearly told them that both have been delivering results for a long time and must be included in the side,” said Vidarbha Cricket Association Chief Selector and former Ranji skipper Suhas Phadkar, who attended the selection committee meeting representing VCA in New Delhi on Wednesday.

“Before the selection of Central Zone team we, the Central Zone selectors, were in quandary about the available pool of players to be picked from as the dates of Duleep Trophy and India A’s ‘Test’ with New Zealand A were clashing. We consulted the National Selectors and after they provided us the available pool, we went ahead. There was some rumour in social media that Wadkar has been selected for India A ... but it was a speculative team ‘selected’ by some cricket enthusiasts. Names of Faiz Fazal, Akshay Wakhare and Rajneesh Gurbani also came up during discussion,” Phadkar informed.

Wadkar and Sarvate have been the main players for Vidarbha in the recent past. Wadkar scored a hundred in Vidarbha’s maiden Ranji final win while Sarvate, to his credit, removed Indian mainstay Cheteshwar Pujara of Saurashtra cheaply in both innings in Vidarbha’e second consecutive Ranji final.

The Central Zone team had to picked from seven state associations — Vidarbha, Ranji champs Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Railways, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. The Duleep Trophy will be contested between six zones — North, South, Central, West, East and Northeast on a knock-out basis.

The BCCI was not following the zonal format for the last few seasons, fielding the India Red, Blue and Green teams instead. With the zonal format making a comeback, it will have one extra zone in Northeast, besides the existing five.

Central Zone Team: Karan Sharma (Captain, UP), Shubham Sharma (Vice-Captain), Himanshu Mantri (WK/Batsman), Yash Dubey (all MP), Priyam Garg, Rinku Singh (both UP), Ashok Maneria (Raj), Akshay Wadkar (WK/Batsman, Vid), Gaurav Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer (both MP), Deepak Dhapola (Chhattisgarh), Aniket Chaudhary (Raj), Kumar Kartikey (MP), Aditya Sarvate (Vid), Ankit Rajput (UP).