R Smaran, Andre Siddarth added to South Zone squad for Duleep Trophy final

Bengaluru, Sep 7 (PTI) Promising batters Ravichandran Smaran of Karnataka and Andre Siddarth of Tamil Nadu were on Sunday added to South Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy final.

South Zone will face Central Zone in the five-day title clash here at the BCCI Centre of Excellence grounds from September 11.

The 22-year-old Smaran and the 19-year-old Siddarth were in the standbys list during the semifinal phase, and now that they have been promoted to the main squad, Aniket Reddy of Hyderabad and Ajay Rohera of Pondicherry have been added as standbys.

Smaran and Siddarth were added to the main squad after N Jagadeesan and Devdutt Padikkal were drafted into the India A squad for the two unofficial Tests against Australia at Lucknow.

Jagadeesan had made 197 for South in the first innings against North Zone in the semifinals, helping his side to 536.

It was enough for South to gain a first innings lead to enter the Duleep Trophy final, after bowling out North for 361.

The Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper batter also made an unbeaten 52 in the second innings, while Padikkal made 57 and 16 not out in two innings.

South Zone squad for Duleep Trophy final: Mohammed Azharuddeen (c&wk), Ricky Bhui (vc), Ravichandran Smaran, Kale M, Sheikh Rasheed, Tanmay Agarwal, Salman Nizar, Andre Siddarth, Tanay Thyagarajan, Gurjapneet Singh, MD Nidheesh, Vasuki Koushik, Ankit Sharma, T Vijay, Basil NP.

Stand-bys: Mohit Redkar, Snehal Kautankar, Eden Apple Tom, Ajay Rohera, G Anikeeth Reddy. PTI UNG DDV