Duleep Trophy: Nehal Wadhera named as Mandeep Singh's injury replacement, Jayant Yadav to take charge of North Zone

Seasoned batter Mandeep Singh is set to miss the forthcoming edition of the Duleep Trophy as he has been ruled out, owing to an injury. Notably, Nehal Wadhera, who made a lasting impression in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 for the Mumbai Indians, has been named as the replacement for the injured batter in the North Zone setup.

It is worth mentioning that Wadhera was initially kept as a stand-by for the North Zone, however, he is confirmed to feature for the side. In addition to this, all-rounder Jayant Yadav will lead North Zone in the upcoming season. Anirudh Chaudhry, convenor of the zonal committee, confirmed Mandeep Singh’s exclusion from the tournament in a press release on Thursday, June 22.

“We received intimation this morning from the Punjab Cricket Association that Mandeep Singh had gotten injured and would be unavailable for the Duleep Trophy. Pursuant thereto a video-conference was organised this evening with all the selectors of the North Zone Selection Committee and the same was chaired by Chetan Sharma,” Chaudhry was quoted as saying in a press release.

“Selectors discussed the issue and unanimously decided that Nehal Wadhera would be the replacement for Mandeep Singh. Since Mandeep Singh was the captain of the side, the Committee also picked Jayant Yadav to lead the North Zone team in the Duleep trophy,” the release further stated.

India's domestic cricket season will kickstart with Duleep Trophy

The competition will set the ball rolling for India’s domestic season 2023-24. The matches will commence on Wednesday, June 28, with the summit clash scheduled to begin on Wednesday, July 12. North Zone will lock horns with North-East Zone in Quarter Final 2, in order to obtain a spot in the semi-final of the competition, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru.

North Zone updated squad: Jayant Yadav (c), Prashant Chopra, Dhruv Shorey, Manan Vohra, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Ankit Kumar, AS Kalsi, Harshit Rana, Abid Mushtaq, Pulkit Narang, Nishant Sandhu, Sidharth Kaul, Vaibhav Arora, Baltej Singh, Nehal Wadhera