Mumbai batter Shivam Dube, who had a memorable outing with Chennai Super Kings in the last edition of the Indian Premier League, has been included in the West Zone squad for the Deodhar Trophy, beginning in Puducherry from July 24.
The West Zone team will be led by Priyank Panchal and will have noted names - Sarfaraz Khan, Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tripathi, Ankeet Bawane - in its ranks, along with Dube. In the IPL, Dube amassed 418 runs in 16 outings, with three fifties under his belt, and played a key role in the team’s title glory.
The selection committee included Shaw even though he is scheduled to travel to the United Kingdom to feature in county cricket.
Among the bowlers, youngster Rajvardhan Hangargekar has been named in the squad, whereas Chetan Sakariya and Tushar Deshpande have been kept as standbys.
In the Duleep Trophy, Deshpande had replaced Sakariya as the latter suffered an injury during the training.
As Deepak Chahar missed out on a large part of the tournament due to injury, Deshpande spearheaded the CSK bowling attack and provided the team with breakthroughs at crucial junctures.
Over the last few domestic seasons, he has been Mumbai’s fast-bowling mainstay, and now with backing from none other than Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Deshpande was able to replicate his Mumbai success story at CSK and emerged as the franchise’s leading wicket-taker with 21 scalps.
In the 29 first-class outings so far, Deshpande has claimed 80 wickets.
Deodhar Trophy makes a return after 2019. It was stalled for the last four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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