Parthiv Patel to lead West Zone in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Gujarat skipper Parthiv Patel has been named as the captain of the West Zone for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Inter-Zonal Trophy 2017. Parthiv had recently led the Gujarat side to a historic Ranji Trophy win. Now, the West Zone selectors, under the chairmanship of Milind Rege, have handed him the leadership role for the zonal team.

Mumbai captain, Aditya Tare, has been named as the deputy to Patel. Maharashtra skipper Kedar Jadhav and Baroda captain Irfan Pathan who put up an allround show to single-handedly win the game against Saurashtra for his team have also made it to the 15-man squad. Needless to say, the West Zone team is no short on big name players. Apart from Parthiv, four other players from Gujarat have made it to the squad.

Rujul Bhat, opener Priyank Panchal (leading run-scorer of the Ranji Trophy this year), Ishwar Chaudhary and Team India international Jasprit Bumrah. Along with Tare, four players from Mumbai feature in the squad – opener Shreyas Iyer, veteran all-rounder Abhishek Nayar, pacer Shardul Thakur and veteran leggie Pravin Tambe.

Kedar Jadhav will be accompanied by fellow Maharashtra players Ankit Bawne and left-arm spinner Jagdish Zope. Ankit emerged as the leading run scorer during the recently concluded zonal T20 league and hence has been rightly rewarded a spot. He had earlier scored an unbeaten 258 during a Ranji Trophy fixture against Delhi last year. Zope is a surprise inclusion since he had only 4 wickets to his name in 4 matches in the zonal leg of the tournament.

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Hard-hitting batsman from Baroda, Deepak Hooda, is also a part of the squad. Three players from the team, Iyer, Bawne and Priyank Panchal, will be released from the squad after the first two matches since they have India A duties to follow.

West Zone Squad for Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy:

Parthiv Patel (C), Aditya Tare, Shreyas Iyer, Kedar Jadhav, Ankit Bawne, Abhishek Nayar, Irfan Pathan, Rujul Bhatt, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishwar Chaudhary, Pravin Tambe, Deepak Hooda, Priyank Panchal, Jagdish Zope.