Duleep Trophy Final: South Zone face Rahane-led West Zone in a feisty encounter

The Duleep Trophy final promises to be an extravagant spectacle as the South Zone and West Zone players will look to bridge the gap between the collective goal of a title win and their personal targets when they face each other in the summit clash starting from WednesdayFrom a team perspective West have a proud record to preserve They have appeared in 34 Duleep Trophy finals so far winning 19 of themThey are the most successful team in this tournament and South will be eager to end that hegemony by winning a 14th title for themselvesSouth might also have a point to prove as they had lost to Ajinkya Rahaneled West Zone by a massive 294 runs in the Duleep Trophy final last yearAs it occurs in any team contest Duleep Trophy also works as a vehicle to achieve certain individual objectives Cheteshwar Pujara offers the most telltale exampleThe veteran India batter was dropped from the India squad for the West Indies tour The omission might certainly have left him a bruised manBut the Saurashtra star did not confine himself to a dark corner He flew to Bengaluru and made a solid 133 for West Zone in the semifinal against Central Zone leading his sides entry into the title clashHe will be eyeing another big outing in the final That willingness to grind shown by a man who has played 103 Tests and scored over 7000 runs will work as a pathway for many others from both the teamsMayank Agarwal vicecaptain of South Sarfaraz Khan and Prithvi Shaw have come to this match riding on heaps of runs that they have made in the previous Ranji seasonAlso Read Duleep Trophy 2023 Cheteshwar Pujaras century places West Zone en route to finalMayank made two fifties 76 amp 54 in the quarterfinals against North Zone but the West pair of Prithvi and Sarfaraz failed to kick on The trio will seek a better outing this weekHanuma Vihari and Washington Sundar too need a serious effort but for a different reason than the aforementioned troikaVihari last appeared for India in 2022 during the Birmingham Test against England while Washington played against Sri Lanka in the whiteball series earlier this yearHowever injuries and competition for spots have curtailed their progress in Test cricket Now they would like to dish out an impact performance here and return among the contenders listN Tilak Varma who has been recently drafted into Indias T20I squad to face West Indies would like to underline his redball credentials as his stated aim is to be an allformat playerThese are all players who have been in the headlines for a while now But then there are players like B Sai Sudarshan R Sai Kishore Vysakh Vijayakumar Vidwath Kaverappa etc who would be keen to lift the veil of relative unfamiliarity and show their wares in the longer formatThat jostle over the next five days will be an intense watchTeamsSouth Zone Hanuma Vihari captain Mayank Agarwal vicecaptain Sai Sudharsan Ricky Bhui wk R Samarth Washington Sundar Sachin Baby Pradosh Ranjan Paul Sai Kishore V Kaverappa V Vyshak KV Sasikanth Darshan Misal N Tilak VarmaWest Zone Priyank Panchal captain Cheteshwar Pujara Suryakumar Yadav Harvik Desai wk Prithvi Shaw Het Patel wk Sarfaraz Khan Arpit Vasavada Atit Seth Shams Mulani Kedar Jadhav Dharmendrasinh Jadeja Tushar Deshpande Chintan Gaja Arzan NagwaswallaWith PTI inputs