Manoj Tiwary named East Zone skipper for Duleep Trophy 2022; Riyan Parag finds a place in 15-member squad

Veteran batter Manoj Tiwary was on Thursday (August 25) picked to lead East Zone in the upcoming Duleep Trophy as Bengal players made up the majority of the 15-member squad. The zonal tournament will run from September 8 to 25 in Chennai.

Seven players from the eastern giants made the cut, while Jharkhand contributed four cricketers. Virat Singh, who struck a century in the recent Ranji Trophy quarter-final against Bengal, has been appointed vice-captain. Jharkhand skipper Saurabh Tiwary does not feature.

IPL star Riyan Parag, who plies his trade for the Rajasthan Royals (RR), was one of the two faces from Assam. All-rounder Manisankar Murasingh and batter Shantanu Mishra are the sole representatives from Tripura and Odisha, respectively.

Additionally, four players have been named as stand-by, with Bihar’s Abhijit Saket finding a place.

Here’s the state-wise breakdown of the team:

Bengal: Manoj Tiwary, Sudip Gharami, Shahbaz Ahamad, Akash Deep, Anustup Majumdar, Ishan Porel, Abishek Porel

Jharkhand: Virat Singh, Nazim Siddiqui, Kumar Kushagra, Shahbaz Nadeem

Assam: Riyan Parag, Mukhtar Hussain

Tripura: Manisankar Murasingh

Odisha: Shantanu Mishra

Stand-by: Sayan Sekhar Mondal (Bengal), Anukul Roy (Jharkhand), Rajesh Mohanty (Odisha), Abhijit Saket (Bihar)

Chief selectors from the six state associations met in Ranchi today. Bengal’s Subhomoy Das expressed pleasure over his former teammate Manoj Tiwary being given leadership duties.

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“It was a long and fruitful meeting. I am happy that Manoj will lead the East Zone. He will bring his vast experience to the field,” Das, who played 49 first-class matches, was quoted as saying by a Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) release.

Team India batter Ajinkya Rahane has been named captain of West Zone, while Uttar Pradesh skipper Karan Sharma will lead Central Zone. Punjab's Mandeep Singh has been given responsibility of North Zone.

The zonal format is making a comeback after eight years. From the 2016-17 season to 2019-20, the tournament saw three teams – India Red, India Blue, India Green – compete in a round-robin format. The sides were compiled by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

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Full squad list for West Zone, Central Zone and North Zone

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

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

North Zone: Mandeep Singh (c), Dhruv Shorey (vc), Yash Dhull, Manan Vohra, Himanshu Rana, Akash Vashisht, Anmol Malhotra (wk), Mayank Dagar, Pulkit Narang, Navdeep Saini, Siddharth Kaul, Jagjit Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Qamran Iqbal, Vikas Mishra

The South Zone squad is yet to be announced.

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