Shardul Thakur to Captain West Zone in Duleep Trophy After Iyer Declines Offer

India ODI batter Shreyas Iyer turned down the offer to captain West Zone in the Duleep Trophy, after which the national selectors handed the responsibility to his Mumbai and India teammate, all-rounder Shardul Thakur, TOI has learnt. Iyer, however, made himself available for the tournament, being played on a zonal basis again, as a player. "Yes, it's true Iyer turned down the offer from the West Zone selection committee to captain the team. After that, the chairman of the committee, Sanjay Patil, who is also the Mumbai chief selector, approached Thakur to lead West Zone, an opportunity that Thakur gladly accepted," a source said.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! Reports suggest that Iyer had been expecting a call-up for the Asia Cup and had begun white-ball training with his personal coach Pravin Amre at the MCA indoor facility in Bandra-Kurla Complex and at the Cricket Club of India. Since the Asia Cup begins on Sept 9 in the UAE, and the defending champions West Zone are seeded to directly play in the Duleep Trophy semifinals from September 4 to 7 at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Bengaluru, Iyer would have been unavailable for the tournament if selected for the Asia Cup. However, the 30-year-old Mumbai batter was controversially excluded from India’s 15-man T20 Asia Cup squad, and he was not even named among the reserves when the national selectors announced the squad last Monday at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai. Meanwhile, newly appointed West Zone captain Thakur is tipped to lead the Mumbai Ranji Trophy team in the 2025-26 season after veteran batter Ajinkya Rahane stepped down from the role on Thursday. Thakur, who recently recovered from ankle surgery, has been a key player in Mumbai’s red-ball setup, taking 35 wickets in nine Ranji Trophy matches, alongside scoring 505 runs, including one century and four fifties. His all-round performance earned him a recall to the Indian Test team for the England tour, where he picked up two wickets in two Tests and scored 108 runs. The West Zone selectors opted not to include veterans Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, signaling an end to their comeback hopes in red-ball cricket, while announcing a 15-man squad on Aug 1. The Duleep Trophy will begin at the CoE on Aug 28, with the final scheduled for Sept 11. Mumbai’s new Under-19 head coach Kiran Powar will serve as the West Zone team’s head coach for the tournament, which also marks the start of the 2025-26 domestic season.