Duleep Trophy: Blow for Sarfaraz Khan as Mumbai batter ruled out due to quadricep injury

Sarfaraz Khan (Getty Images)

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MUMBAI: In a big blow to his aspirations ahead of India's home Test season, set to kick off against West Indies in October, Mumbai's middle-order batsman Sarfaraz Khan , who recently cracked two back-to-back centuries in the Buchi Babu Tournament in Chennai, has been ruled out of the Duleep Trophy due to an injury.Sarfaraz was set to turn out for defending champions West Zone in their semifinal clash against Central Zone, starting September 4 at the BCCI's CoE in Bengaluru."Sarfaraz is suffering from a quadriceps injury, which he picked up while scoring a century against Haryana in the Buchi Babu event five days ago. He's set to be out for almost three weeks, and is currently rehabilitating at the CoE," a source confirmed to TOI on Sunday. Sarfaraz is likely to be replaced by Baroda batter Shivalik Sharma, who was named among the reserves for West Zone in the tournament. Shivalik has scored 1,087 runs in 18 first-class matches at an average of 43.48, with three hundreds and five fifties. He scored 484 runs in seven matches last season at 44.00, with one hundred and three fifties.The 27-year-old Sarfaraz, who was snubbed from India's Test tour of England this summer, had shown fine form in the Buchi Babu, scoring a run-a-ball 111 against Haryana and an aggressive 114-ball 138 against TNCA XI in Mumbai's opening match of the tournament.Meanwhile, India's Test wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel, who was named as the captain of the Central Zone side in the Duleep Trophy but missed the opening match against North East due to a groin injury, has also been ruled out of the semifinal clash against West Zone from September 4, TOI has learnt. Jurel has been replaced by his fellow Uttar Pradesh wicketkeeper Upendra Yadav in the Central Zone side. The other change in the Central side is that India's chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, set to report to Dubai on India duty for the Asia Cup, has been replaced by Vidarbha pacer Yash Thakur.In another development, South Zone have announced a major change in their squad for the Duleep Trophy semifinal against North Zone from September 4. Captain Tilak Varma will not be participating, as the match begins on the same day Team India departs for the T20 Asia Cup scheduled in the UAE.Mohammed Azharuddeen of Kerala, who was earlier named the vice-captain of the team, will now lead South Zone in Varma's absence, with Tamil Nadu's wicketkeeper-batsman N Jagadeesan, who was recently flown to England as a replacement for the injured Rishabh Pant for the fifth Test against the hosts, as his deputy.Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu's left-arm spinner Sai Kishore has also been ruled out owing to a finger injury.

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