Duleep Trophy 2025: Format, schedule, live streaming and everything else you need to know

There’s still some time for Team India’s home season, with the Test series against West Indies set to get underway on Gandhi Jayanti (2 October) in Ahmedabad. The BCCI’s domestic season, however, begins much earlier, with the Duleep Trophy set to get underway less than 24 hours from now.

Here’s everything you need to know about the 62nd edition of the prestigious First-Class tournament:

What format will the 2025 Duleep Trophy be played in? 

While the previous edition of the Duleep Trophy had four teams, viz. India A, India B, India C and India D, it returns to the zonal format this year with teams such as West Zone, North Zone, etc. The event had returned to the zonal format after an eight-year gap in 2022, and had continued in the same format the following season as well before having players from different zones playing alongside one another in the A, B, C and D teams last year.

This year’s Duleep Trophy has 19-time champions West Zone, the most successful side in the tournament’s history, and South Zone already qualified for the semi-finals. They will meet the winners of the North Zone vs East Zone and Central Zone vs North East Zone quarter-finals that get underway on Thursday.

How many teams will be in action in the upcoming Duleep Trophy?

The Duleep Trophy will feature six zonal teams this year – North Zone, South Zone, West Zone, East Zone, North East Zone and Central Zone.

Here are the full squads:

North Zone: Shubman Gill (c), Shubham Khajuria, Ankit Kumar (vc), Ayush Badoni, Yash Dhull, Ankit Kalsi, Nishant Sandhu, Sahil Lotra, Mayank Dagar, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Anshul Kamboj, Auqib Nabi, Kanhaiya Wadhawan. Standbys: Shubham Arora (wk), Jaskaranvir Singh Paul, Ravi Chauhan, Abid Mushtaq, Nishunk Birla, Umar Nazir, Divesh Sharma

South Zone: Tilak Varma (c), Mohammed Azharuddeen (vc), Tanmay Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Mohit Kale, Salman Nizar, Narayan Jagadeesan, Tripurana Vijay, R Sai Kishore, Tanay Thyagarajan, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Nidheesh MD, Ricky Bhui, Basil NP, Gurjapneet Singh, Snehal Kauthankar. Standbys: Mohit Redkar, R Smaran, Ankit Sharma, Edhen Apple Tom, Andre Siddarth, Shaikh Rasheed

West Zone: Shardul Thakur (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Aarya Desai, Harvik Desai (wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Jaymeet Patel, Manan Hingrajia, Saurabh Nawale (wicket-keeper), Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Dharmandrasinh Jadeja, Tushar Deshpande, Arzan Nagwaswala. Standbys: Mahesh Pithiya, Shivalik Shama, Mukesh Choudhary, Siddharath Desai, Chintan Gaja, Urvil Patel, Musheer Khan

East Zone: Abhimanyu Easwaran (c), Riyan Parag (vc), Sandeep Patnaik, Virat Singh, Denish Das, Sridam Paul, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Kushagra (wk), Aasirwad Swain (wk), Utkarsh Singh, Manishi, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mukesh Kumar, Mukhtar Hussain and Mohammed Shami.

North East Zone: Jonathan Rongsen (c), Akash Kumar Choudhary, Techi Doria, Yumnum Karnajit, Sedezhalie Rupero, Ashish Thapa, Hem Bahadur Chetri, Jehu Anderson, Arpit Subash Bhatewara, Pheroijam Jotin Singh, Palzor Tamang, Ankur Malik, Bishworjit Singh Konthoujam, Aryan Borah, Lamabam Ajay Singh. Standbys: Kamsha Yangfo, Rajkumar Rex Singh, Bobby Zothansanga, Dippu Sangma, Pukhrumbam Prafullomani Singh, Lee Yong Lepcha, Imliwati Lemtur

Central Zone: Dhruv Jurel (c/wk), Rajat Patidar, Aryan Juyal, Danish Malewar, Sanjeet Desai, Kuldeep Yadav, Aditya Thakare, Deepak Chahar, Saransh Jain, Ayush Pandey, Shubham Sharma, Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Manav Suthar, Khaleel Ahmed. Standbys: Madhav Kaushik, Yash Thakur, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Mahipal Lomror, Kuldeep Sen, Upendra Yadav

Who are some of the senior cricketers in this year’s Duleep Trophy? 

The biggest name in action in this year’s Duleep Trophy is Shubman Gill, who is coming off a remarkable run in his maiden series as India captain in England – where he accumulated a record 754 runs in five Tests while captaining the visitors to a 2-2 draw.

Gill’s participation, however, remains doubtful on the eve of the tournament due to health issues, and vice-captain Ankit Kumar could be leading the side in his absence.

Also Read | Why Shreyas Iyer isn’t captaining West Zone in 2025 Duleep Trophy

Besides the talismanic batter, this year’s Duleep Trophy will also have senior pacer Mohammed Shami in action along with other India internationals such as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Harshit Rana, Dhruv Jurel, Rajat Patidar among others in action.

When will the 2025 Duleep Trophy matches take place? 

Here’s the full schedule of the upcoming Duleep Trophy:

Quarter-finals (NZ vs EZ and CZ vs NEZ) – 28-31 August

Semi-finals (SZ vs TBA and WZ vs TBA) – 4-7 September

Final (TBA vs TBA) – 11-15 September

Where can I watch the 2025 Duleep Trophy live? 

The Duleep Trophy will be telecast on the Star Sports Network with live streaming available on JioHotstar.