CHENNAI: Another season and another Duleep Trophy final is here. And it is a repeat of the 2022 season as the defending champions West Zone take on South Zone in the summit clash at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
Not much has changed between the two sides, especially on the batting front with Hanuma Vihari leading South and Priyank Panchal leading West. While Ajinkya Rahane and Shreyas Iyer were there last time around, this time they will have the services of Prithvi Shaw and Cheteshwar Pujara with the bat. And Pujara has already shown why he is not done yet with a sublime century in the semifinal at Alur against Central Zone.
In the last year’s final, the key battle in the first innings was between R Sai Kishore and Shreyas-Sarafaraz Khan duo. The TN left-arm spinner bowled close to 75 over in the match, winning the contest on day one against two prolific players against spin. This time, he will be going up against Sarfaraz and a giant in batting against spin, Pujara. To put into context, since 2010 no Indian batter, apart from MS Dhoni. has a better Test average against spin than Pujara. And understandably, Sai Kishore is excited about the challenge.
Despite not bowling as many overs in the semifinal, he is very much looking forward to bowling against Pujara. “Someone who has played Test cricket for so long is playing against you means you get to compete against them and see where you are mentally, physically, skillswise, everything. Very much eager and looking forward to the contest. Mentally, you can tell yourself that you are ready wherever you want to play but if there is a player who’s played there then you can rate yourself against them,” he had said.
Meanwhile, for South Zone, they will not have Pradosh Ranjan Paul and B Sai Sudharsan as the duo are travelling to Sri Lanka for the Emerging Asia Cup. Suryash Prabhudesai and V Koushik have been drafted into the squad in their place. Having failed to capitalize on the momentum they had in last year’s final, they are hungry for more this time around. At the same time, the focus is just on giving their everything as they did in the semifinal against North Zone. “If we give our everything and recreate the same feeling of competing to the fullest, having that competitive spirit that will be good enough,” signed off Sai Kishore.