BENGALURU: With India’s top cricketers being called up for the Asia Cup in Dubai or the India ‘A’ series in Lucknow, the Duleep Trophy final between South and Central Zones lacks the star-studded line-up seen in earlier rounds. But the final promises to showcase a wealth of young talent who are eager to make their mark and rewrite the status quo — which is exactly what the tournament was designed for, besides ensuring India and India ‘A’ players get some red-ball time.With star players away, the game at the BCCI Centre of Excellence here will see two new-look teams face off. South and Central had progressed to the final on the strength of their first innings lead against North and West Zone, respectively.South will be without the experience of N Jagadeesan, who glittered with the bat in the semifinal, and southpaw Devdutt Padikkal. Both are on India ‘A’ duty. Skipper Mohammed Azharuddeen is likely to take over the duty behind the stumps from Jagadeesan.In their absence, the focus will be on their Tamil Nadu and Karnataka teammates Andre Siddarth and R Smaran, respectively. Both youngsters have shone in their debut season for their states.While 19-year-old Siddarth scored 612 runs, batting mostly in the middle-order, Smaran, a top-order batter, was Karnataka’s highest run getter in red-ball cricket with 516. Smaran, a left-hand top-order batter, could well be a like-for-like replacement for Padikkal, while Siddarth offers stability in the middle.South skipper Azharuddeen, a tournament debutant himself, said that, like the last-four contest, South’s lineup would be batting heavy.“We are playing with seven batters; it’s always an advantage because Bengaluru wickets always favours batters,” he said. “So, we’ll aim to keep things simple. We’ll aim to put up a huge score regardless of whether we bat first or second.”South has an experienced bowling attack, which is pace-heavy and includes V Koushik, MD Nidheesh and Gurjapneet Singh.The Duleep Trophy is the first major tournament at this facility and the wickets have been mostly batting-friendly, with some early assistance for pacers.Like South, Central too has undergone a churn and is more affected bowling-wise. The experienced Deepak Chahar picked up only two wickets in the previous two matches and Central will hope he clicks. He will be crucial since Central are without pacers Khaleel Ahmed and Yash Thakur, besides spinner Harsh Dubey.Skipper Rajat Patidar, a surprise exclusion from the India ‘A’ squad, will spearhead the batting.Vidarbha teenager Danish Malewar has been turning heads. He scored 783 in nine Ranji Trophy matches last season and continued his rich vein of form with a double hundred (203) against NorthEast in the quarterfinals here. In the semifinals, he scored 76 against West.The tournament will continue to be played sans spectators, but there will be live coverage.
