Duleep Trophy semifinals: Central v East and South v North at BCCI Centre of Excellence from Sunday

Central Zone will meet East Zone and South Zone will face North Zone in the 2026-27 Duleep Trophy semifinal fixtures at the BCCI Centre of Excellence from Sunday, organisers confirmed. Defending champions Central and last season’s finalists South head the four-team draw that resumes at the Bengaluru venue.

East and North reached the last four with contrasting quarterfinal displays: East, led by Ishan Kishan, beat North East by an innings and 210 runs, while North, captained by Kanhaiya Wadhawan, produced a 52-run victory over West despite West being 195 for three while chasing 287. The two results set up the Central–East and South–North ties at the CoE grounds.

Teenage left-arm spinner Vaibhav Sooryavanshi took two wickets in East’s second innings but managed only eight with the bat; his first-class return entering the semis stands at 215 runs from 13 innings at an average of 16.53. Central skipper Rajat Patidar has publicly prioritised curbing Sooryavanshi’s impact, and off-spinner Saransh Jain — who made his India debut in the second Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo and remained on the field until Thursday — is included in Central’s roster.

North have strengthened their seam options with the late addition of Gurnoor Brar — who did not play either Test in Sri Lanka — and he took part in Saturday morning’s practice session. The zone’s pace corps already includes Anshul Kamboj and Arshdeep Singh, while Jammu & Kashmir left-arm spinner Abid Mushtaq produced a match haul of nine for 99 in North’s quarterfinal win; observers will watch whether he finds similar assistance on CoE Ground 2 compared with the red-soil wicket on Ground 1.

South arrive with a recognised batting core headed by skipper Tilak Varma, R. Smaran and Karun Nair. R. Smaran finished the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy as the competition’s top scorer with 950 runs, and Shaik Rasheed — the 21-year-old who made 627 runs in Andhra’s run to the Ranji quarterfinals last season — is also part of South’s batting resources.

The two semifinal ties are scheduled to begin at the BCCI Centre of Excellence from Sunday, with Central v East and South v North set to determine the finalists for the 2026-27 Duleep Trophy.