Veteran India batter Ajinkya Rahane will captain a powerful West Zone side in the 2022 edition of Duleep Trophy, slated to be held in Tamil Nadu from September 8 to September 25.

After an extended lean patch with the ball, Rahane was dropped from the Indian Test team earlier this year alongside Cheteshwar Pujara. While Pujara managed to stage a comeback on the back of his stunning exploits in county cricket for Sussex, Rahane is yet to prove his mettle in domestic cricket.

According to a PTI report, Rahane recently recovered from a groin injury and will make a comeback to competitive cricket with the Duleep Trophy.

The members of Ranji finalist Mumbai team, including well-known names such as Prithvi Shaw and Shardul Thakur and rising stars like Yashashvi Jaiswal, Shams Mulani, Hardik Tamore and Tanush Kotian have all been picked.

From Saurashtra, senior pacer Jaydev Unadkat also features in the West Zone squad while Rahul Tripathi, who recently received a call-up to India’s white-ball team, is also part of the line-up.

The Central Zone also unveiled its squad and most of the stars of Madhya Pradesh’s Ranji Trophy-winning squad feature in the team, including Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma, Kumar Kartikeya and Venkatesh Iyer.

Squads:

West Zone: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Prithvi Shaw (Mumbai), Yashasvi Jaiswal (Mumbai), Shreyas Iyer (Mumbai), Hardik Tamore (wk, Mumbai), Shams Mulani (Mumbai), Tanush Kotian (Mumbai), Shardul Thakur (Mumbai), Rahul Tripathi (Maharashtra), Satyajeet Bachhav (Maharashtra), Het Patel (Gujarat), Chintan Gaja (Gujarat), Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra), Chirag Jani (Saurashtra), Atit Sheth (Baroda)

Central Zone: Karan Sharma (c), Shubham Sharma (vc), Himanshu Mantri (wk), Yash Dubey, Priyam Garg, Rinku Singh, Ashok Menaria, Akshay Wadkar (wk), Gaurav Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Dhopola, Aniket Chaudhary, Kumar Kartikey, Aditya Sarvatey, Ankit Rajput.

(With PTI inputs)