Mohammed Azharuddeen Captain: Azharuddin will replace Tilak Verma, captain, in the middle of the tournament

New Delhi. Kerala batsman Mohammad Azharuddin has been named captain for the Duleep Trophy semi -final against North Zone at the BCCI Center of Excellence from September 4. He was appointed the captain of South Zone in place of Tilak Verma on Sunday. Tilak Verma was first appointed as the captain of the South Zone but has been selected in the Indian team for the Asia Cup. Therefore, he will not be able to play further in the Dalip Trophy.

Azharuddin was the vice-captain of the team along with Tilak Varma and now the role has been handed over to N Jagdishan of Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu’s left -handed spinner R Sai Kishore will not play in the semi -finals, as he is recovering from hand injury right now. Ankit Sharma of Puducherry and Sheikh Rashid of Andhra have been included in the South region team for the last four matches of the Dalip Trophy. Both these players were first kept in standby.

Ankit is a left -handed spinner, who has taken 168 wickets in 68 first -class matches. Rashid is a top -order batsman, who has scored 1204 runs in 19 matches of Ranji Trophy.

The team from South region is as follows: Mohammad Azharuddin (captain), Tanmay Aggarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohit Kale, Salman Nizar, Narayan Jagadisin, Tripurana Vijay, Tanay Tyagarajan, Vijaykumar Vishak, Nidhish MD, Ricky Bhui, Basil NP, Gurjapneet Singh, Snehal Kauthankar, Ankit Sharma, Sheikh Rashid. Standby: Mohit Redkar, R. Remember, Eden Apple Tom, Andre Siddharth.