KL Rahul, Siraj and Padikkal Asked to Play the Duleep Trophy Final — But Three South Zone Names Are Still in Doubt

Two days out from the Duleep Trophy final in Chennai, South Zone's squad has picked up some significant reinforcements — and lost clarity on three others. Selectors have asked KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj and Devdutt Padikkal to turn out for South Zone against East Zone, while the final's own captain, Tilak Varma, along with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Ishan Kishan, can only play if India head coach Gautam Gambhir releases them from national duty.

Why senior players are being pulled into a domestic final

Rahul, Siraj and Padikkal are not part of any current India squad, which makes them straightforwardly available, and their addition gives South Zone's final-day XI a considerably more experienced look than the one that beat North Zone in the semi-final. Bringing established internationals into the Duleep Trophy at the knockout stage is not new for Indian domestic cricket — it doubles as red-ball match practice for players outside the current Test setup, with the tournament's decision to move the final to the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai for a paying crowd adding extra profile to games that will double as trials.

The clearance problem

The complication is that South Zone's actual match-winners from the semi-final are tied up elsewhere. Tilak Varma captained South Zone to their semi-final win and then carried an unbeaten century into a match-defining 51 not out in the chase; Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who broke a 57-year-old record for the youngest Duleep Trophy fifty earlier in the tournament, plays for East Zone rather than South Zone, and is similarly tied to the national T20I setup; Ishan Kishan captains East Zone. All three are contracted into India's T20I squad for the Afghanistan series, which begins training ahead of the September 13 series opener in Delhi. Whether they turn out in Chennai from September 6 depends entirely on whether Gambhir is willing to release them for a four-day domestic final in the same week his squad needs to be assembling.

What South Zone's XI could look like either way

If the trio are released, South Zone's final XI would combine the in-form domestic core — Narayan Jagadeesan, Ricky Bhui, MD Nidheesh — with senior international bowling and batting depth added specifically for the final. If they are not, Rahul, Siraj and Padikkal's inclusion becomes even more central, effectively replacing the very players whose semi-final form got South Zone to the final in the first place. Either way, this is one of the more unusual selection situations the tournament has produced: a squad that could look meaningfully different from the side that qualified, in either direction.

East Zone's position

East Zone face a mirrored version of the same question, since Sooryavanshi and Kishan are their vice-captain and captain respectively. Mohammed Shami, who is not part of the current India T20I picture, has no such complication and is expected to lead East Zone's pace attack regardless of how the other calls go.

Why the timing is tight

Analysis: this squeeze is a direct consequence of India's packed September calendar. With the Afghanistan T20Is starting the week after the final ends, and the Asian Games immediately behind that, there is very little slack for the national team's own coaching staff to release contracted players into a first-class final, however prestigious. The decision will say something about how BCCI is weighing red-ball domestic finals against white-ball international preparation this season.

Following the final

Confirmed XIs and toss news from the September 6 start will be tracked on SportGod's live matches page, and you can revisit how South Zone reached the final in our semi-final report. Build fantasy lineups once squads are locked in SportGod's free contests.

Squad call-ups and the clearance situation are verified against same-day reporting on South Zone's Duleep Trophy final squad, current as of September 4, 2026.