Duleep Trophy set to be held in Bengaluru starting from 28th August and will be back in its inter-zonal format.
Returning to its inter-zonal format, the Duleep Trophy will take place in Bengaluru from August 28 to September 15. The competition will use a knockout format, and the games will take place at the Centre of Excellence grounds. The competition, which has returned to the inter-zonal structure following a one-season break, will involve six zones: South, Central, West, East, North, and North-East.
The teams from the South and West Zones have been seeded directly into the playoffs. From August 28 to August 31, the two quarterfinal matches—North Zone vs. East Zone and Central Zone vs. North-East Zone—will take place. September 4–7 is when the semifinals will take place, while September 11 is when the final will begin.
Teams from the 2016–17 to 2019–20 seasons—known as India A, B, C, and D—were chosen at random by the national selectors to compete in the competition. Last year, it returned to the A-B-C-D format after reverting to the zonal scheme in 2022–2023. This season, the tournament will once again use the zonal format, per a BCCI resolution at the most recent AGM. The Covid-19 pandemic also caused the competition to be suspended for a few seasons.
In the meantime, Nagpur has been awarded the Irani Cup by the BCCI. The five-day yearly match between the champions and the rest of India will naturally take place at Vidarbha’s hometown, as they are the reigning Ranji Trophy champions.
Whether Karun Nair, who played a part in Vidarbha’s championship campaign the previous season, will play for the state is the main question going into the match. Although Nair has already returned to Karnataka for the forthcoming season, he has not been chosen for the Duleep Trophy squad by the South Zone selectors.