India and Bengal fast bowler Mohammed Shami has been named in the East Zone squad for the 2025-26 Duleep Trophy, starting on August 28 in Bengaluru.
Apart from Shami, the likes of Akash Deep, and Abhimanyu Easwaran have also been included in the East Zone squad, which will be led by wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan, who recently scored two half-centuries in two innings for Nottinghamshire in the ongoing County Championship Division One.
The 34-year-old Shami was last seen in action in IPL 2025, where he picked up six wickets in nine matches at an economy rate of 11.23 for his new team Sunrisers Hyderabad. His last first-class game was for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy in November 2024. The veteran right-arm pacer last played for India in their victorious 2025 Champions Trophy campaign.
Meanwhile, Easwaran, the right-handed opener who warmed the bench in the ongoing Test series against England, will be the vice-captain. Akash Deep, who picked a ten-wicket haul in India’s 336-run win in Birmingham, and is in action at The Oval, will handle pace bowling duties alongside Shami, Mukesh Kumar and Suraj Jaiswal.
Other prominent players include India all-rounder Riyan Parag and Jharkhand wicketkeeper-batter Kumar Kushagra. Fourteen-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who made heads turn with a 35-ball century in IPL 2025 for Rajasthan Royals and struck the fastest century in Youth ODIs on India Under-19’s tour of England last month, is amongst the stand-by players.
The Duleep Trophy will be held in the old zonal format of six teams and marks the beginning of 2025/26 domestic cricket season. East Zone will begin their campaign with a quarter-final clash against North Zone at the BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground, with the game’s winner set to meet South Zone in the semi-final.
East Zone Squad: Ishan Kishan (c) (Jharkhand), Abhimanyu Easwaran (vc) (Bengal), Sandeep Pattnaik (Odisha), Virat Singh (Jharkhand), Denish Das (Assam), Sridam Paul (Tripura), Sharandeep Singh (Jharkhand), Kumar Kushagra (Jharkhand), Riyan Parag (Assam), Utkarsh Singh (Jharkhand), Manishi (Jharkhand), Suraj Jaiswal (Bengal), Mukesh Kumar (Bengal), Akash Deep (Bengal) and Mohammed Shami (Bengal)
Stand-bys: Mukhtar Hussain (Assam), Aasirwad Swain (Odisha), Vaibhav Suryavanshi (Bihar), Swastik Samal (Odisha), Sudip Kr Gharami (Bengal) and Rahul Singh (Assam)