Duleep Trophy: Bengal minister Manoj Tiwary appointed East Zone captain, Riyan Parag included in team

East Zone selectors have put a senior member in charge as they aim to win the Duleep Trophy.

The East Zone selection committee selected their team for the upcoming Duleep Trophy on 25 August, Thursday. The meeting was held at the premises of JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi. West Bengal sitting minister and cricketer Manoj Tiwary was appointed to lead the team followed by Virat Singh who will be his deputy in the upcoming tournament. The selectors have chosen a strong team which includes Assam and IPL star Riyan Parag. The tournament is scheduled to be played at Tamil Nadu between September 8 to 25th of September.

There are overall seven players selected from Cricket Association of Bengal, four from Jharkhand State Cricket Association, two players have been named from Assam Cricket Association and one each from Odisha Cricket Association and Tripura Cricket Association. Shahbaz Ahmed who has been named for Zimbabwe tour of India has been selected for the East Zone team.

The East Zone selectors said that they were confident of the team doing well in the tournament and said that their main competition would be the Ajinkya Rahane-led West Zone. They further added that making Tiwary the captain was a shared decision.

"Its a joint decision. We need a senior player to lead the side. Manoj is an ideal one who could lead the team. Our main Fight will be with West. Ajinkya Rahane is going to lead the side. We are hopeful about the tournament," said Subhamoy Das.

The following players have been shortlisted from East Zone for Duleep Trophy Season 2022-2023

Manoj Tiwary (Captain) - CAB, Virat Singh (Vice-captain) - JSCA, Nazim Siddique - JSCA, Sudip Kumar Gharami - CAB, Shantanu Mishra - OCA, Anustup Mazumdar - CAB, Riyan Parag - ACA, Kumar Kushagra - JSCA, Abishek Porel- CAB, Shabaz Ahmed - CAB, Shahbaz Nadeem - JSCA, Ishan Porel - CAB, Akash Deep - CAB, Mukhtar Hussain - ACA, Mani Sankar Mura Singh - TCA