Central Zone Suffer Setback as Captain Dhruv Jurel Misses Semi-Final

Central Zone's Dhruv Jurel will not be a part of the semi-final match to be played against the West Zone on September 4. Before the start of the tournament, this wicketkeeper-batsman, also the captain of the team, did not participate in the quarter-finals due to back pain. Now Jurel is expected to be out of the field for a long time due to dengue. Jurel was last seen wicketkeeping on the tour of England due to an injury to Rishabh Pant.

According to the report, Vidarbha and Central Zone head coach Usman Ghani informed that Jurel is suffering from dengue and hence will not be able to participate in the Duleep Trophy semi-finals. He informed that Akshay Wadkar has been included in the team in place of the wicketkeeper-batsman. In Jurel's absence, Rajat Patidar led Central Zone in the quarter-finals against North East Zone. Earlier, a report claimed that Jurel will be out of the semi-finals due to his back injury.

Dhruv Jurel was last seen in the India vs England Test series. Where he did wicketkeeping in the absence of injured Rishabh Pant. Apart from Jurel, Kuldeep Yadav has also withdrawn from the tournament, as he will travel with the Indian team to Dubai for Asia Cup 2025.

Central Zone squad: Rajat Patidar (captain), Akshay Wadkar, Aryan Juyal, Danish Malewar, Sanjeet Desai, Yash Thakur, Aditya Thackeray, Deepak Chahar, Saransh Jain, Ayush Pandey, Shubham Sharma, Yash Rathore, Harsh Dubey, Manav Suthar and Khaleel Ahmed.

Standby: Madhav Kaushik, Yuvraj Choudhary, Mahipal Lomror, Kuldeep Sen, Upendra Yadav.