The 2025 Duleep Trophy will be starting from August 28 onwards. Six teams will be participating in the tournament. Bengaluru’s BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground and BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground B will host the matches. The 1st quarter-final is between North Zone and East Zone. The 2nd quarter-final is between Central Zone and North East Zone. Both matches start on August 28. The winners of the two matches will reach the Duleep Trophy semis where the likes of South Zone and West Zone will wait.
The 2025 Duleep Trophy semis will start from September 4 onwards. The final will be held from September 11 onwards.
Ahead of the premier domestic red-ball tournament, here we present three batters who can have maximum impact and make things count.
Abhimanyu Easwaran (East Zone)
The Bengal batter and India A captain is yet to make his Test debut for India. He warmed the bench in the 5-match Test series between England and India which ended 2-2 recently. Easwaran, who is hungry to grab a Team India chance, owns 7841 runs in First-Class cricket from 103 matches (177 innings). He averages 48.70 with 27 tons and 31 fifties. In 8 Duleep Trophy matches (13 innings), he has 661 runs at 55.08 with 4 tons under his belt, as per ESPNcricinfo.
Devdutt Padikkal (South Zone)
The southpaw can be of significance for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy semis. Interestingly, Padikkal was overlooked for the England tour by the selectors. He made his Test debut against England at home in 2024 and played one more Test against Australia, Down Under. With Sai Sidharsan and Karun Nair not going full tilt in England, Padikkal still has a chance to be in the reckoning for India going forward. In 43 FC matches, he owns 2815 runs at 41.39. He has 6 tons and 17 fifties. 90 of his runs have come for India from 2 matches at 30.
Shreyas Iyer (West Zone)
The versatile all-format player has been ignored for the upcoming Asia Cup (T20Is). Iyer, who has also lost his place in the Test squad, would be keen to make things count. He has 6363 runs in FC cricket, having played 81 games (137 innings) at 48.57. He has 15 tons and 33 fifties. 811 of his runs have come for India in Tests at 36.86 (100s: 1, 50s: 6).
Discussion about this post