Duleep Trophy 2026-27: Squads, full match schedule, format, dates

The 2026-27 Indian domestic cricket season will begin later this month with red-ball cricket opening the expansive calendar through the Duleep Trophy.

The First-Class tournament will once again be played in the zonal format, with six teams representing the various regions of the country, across three rounds of matches between August 23 and September 10.

Central Zone, who won the title after over a decade under the captaincy of Madhya Pradesh batter Rajat Patidar, received a bye, placing them directly in the semi-finals. Meanwhile, last year’s runners-up South Zone have also booked a semi-final spot.

Meanwhile, the South, North, East and North East zones will compete in the initial round. All matches will be played at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.

Duleep Trophy 2026-27 Schedule

Match 1: East Zone vs North-East Zone, August 23-26 at 9:30am, COE Ground 2
Match 2: North Zone vs West Zone, August 23-26 at 9:30am, COE Ground 1
Semifinal 1: Central Zone vs TBC, August 30-September 2 at 9:30am, COE Ground 1
Semifinal 2: South Zone vs TBC, August 30-September 2 at 9:30am, COE Ground 2
Final: TBC vs TBC, September 6-10 at 9:30am, COE Ground 1

Duleep Trophy 2026-27 Squads

South Zone: Tilak Varma (c), Ricky Bhui (vc), Abhinav Tejrana, Shaik Rasheed, K. Himateja, R. Smaran, N. Jagadeesan, Karun Nair, Tanay Thyagarajan, Shreyas Gopal, K. Sai Teja, Tripurana Vijay, Vidwath Kaverappa, Aman Khan, M.D. Nideesh.

East Zone: Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sudip Gharami, Shahbaz Ahmed, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mohammed Shami, Mukesh Kumar, Ishan Kishan (c), Kumar Kushagra (wk), Shikhar Mohan, Anukul Roy, Virat Singh, Subhranshu Senapati, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (vc), Denish Das, Abhijit Sarkar.

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Central Zone: Rajat Patidar (c), Rinku Singh (vc), Aryan Juyal (wicketkeeper), Saransh Jain, Aman Mokhade, Kunal Chandela, Zeeshan Ansari, Aryan Pandey, Arshad Khan, Ayush Pandey, Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Kunal Singh Rathod (wk), Yash Thakur and Nachiket Bhute.

North-East Zone: Techi Neri, Robin Limboo, Bishworjit Singh Konthoujam, Imliwati Lemtur, Kishan Lyndoh, Joseph Lal Thankhuma, Arpit Subhas, Priyojit K, Ronald Meitei, Akash Kumar Choudhary, Vino G. Zhimomi, Lalrempuia, Jonathan Rongsen, Jotin Singh Pheiroijam, Ashish Thapa.

West Zone: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Shams Mulani (vc), Prithvi Shaw, Harvik Desai (wk), Shivalik Sharma, Musheer Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Jaymeet Patel, Urvil Patel (wk), Siddharth Desai, Tanush Kotian, Shardul Thakur, Atit Seth, Tushar Deshpande and Mukesh Chaudhary.