Duleep Trophy 2025: Tilak Varma named South Zone captain, Sanju Samson ignored

Published - 27 Jul 2025, 14:50 IST | Updated - 27 Jul 2025, 15:23 IST

The Duleep Trophy 2025 will mark the commencement of India's upcoming domestic season. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has confirmed that the tournament will be return to be played in zonal formats, with teams divided across six zones — North, East, West, South, North East and Central. To lead the South Zone, the selectors have picked Tilak Varma as the captain for the 2025 edition of the premier red-ball tournament.

The Tilak Varma-led side will be meeting the winner from the quarter-finals in the first semi-final, with the match set to be played at the BCC Centre of Excellence Grounds in Bengaluru. If the side wins or manages a first-inning's lead in the semi-finals, it will move on to play the finals against the winners of the second semi-final, where West Zone is one of the pre-seeded teams.

Tilak's finalization as a leader was done formally after a meeting by the zonal selection committee during their recent meeting in Pondicherry. Meanwhile, Mohammad Azharuddeen, who led Kerala to their rare Ranji Trophy final appearance last year, has been picked as the vice-captain of the squad. A notable Kerala player missing from the Kerala squad is star cricketer Sanju Samson. The wicketkeeper-batter, however, had suffered injury issues during the IPL 2025 and may not have recovered yet, which led the selectors to look ahead of him.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu skipper R Sai Kishore, who plays under Shubman Gill at Gujarat Titans, has also been picked. Tanmay Agarwal, the top-order batter who had a fantastic run in the 2024-25 season, has also been chosen to represent the South Zone. Meanwhile, Kishore's TN teammate Narayan Jagadeesan has also been added to the 16-man squad. Vijay Kumar Vyshak is the only representative of Karnataka in the side.

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Tilak Varma (c) (Hyderabad), Mohammed Azharuddeen (vc) (Kerala), Tanmay Agarwal (Hyderabad), Devdutt Padikkal (Karnataka), Mohit Kale (Pondicherry), Salman Nizar (Kerala), Narayan Jagadeesan (Tamil Nadu), Tripurana Vijay (Andhra), R Sai Kishore (Tamil Nadu), Tanay Thyagarajan (Hyderabad), Vijaykumar Vyshak (Karnataka), Nidheesh MD (Kerala), Ricky Bhui (Andhra), Basil NP (Kerala), Gurjapneet Singh (Tamil Nadu), Snehal Kauthankar (Goa)

Stand-by players: Mohit Redkar, R Smaran, Ankit Sharma, Edhen Apple Tom, Andre Siddarth, Shaikh Rasheed.