India batter KL Rahul will miss the final of the Duleep Trophy against East Zone, South Zone captain Tilak Varma confirmed during a press conference in Chennai. Tilak, who was named in India’s squad for the T20I series against Afghanistan earlier this week, also confirmed that batter Devdutt Padikkal and pacer Mohammed Siraj have been added to the South Zone squad to bolster their ranks for the highly anticipated clash against East Zone, which features the likes of Ishan Kishan , Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Mohammed Sooryavanshi.
It was this very ground where he scored a blistering 16-ball 44 in the T20 World Cup 2026 Super Eight clash against Zimbabwe, which rejuvenated his campaign. In one India match, my jersey number is 72, and I have scored 72 here, and I have won the game.
“KL bhai isn’t there,” Tilak told reporters in the pre-match press conference. Tilak can look back at the Chepauk with good memories. “But from here, when I charged up against Zimbabwe, I was on a different level in my batting and in my confidence as well. It was against England,” he added.
East Zone are looking for their first Duleep Trophy title since 2012-13, when they defeated Central Zone in the final to lift their second trophy, while South have been far more successful, having won 12 titles, with their last coming in 2023. He highlighted that playing the Duleep Trophy final in front of an expected strong crowd would be really special, as the teams played their previous match without the fans at BCCI CoE ground in Bengaluru.
