Mongia to lead West Zone

Former India stumper Nayan Mongia, who has been exonerated from betting and match-fixing charges, will lead a 15-member West Zone team in the first two games of the Duleep Trophy cricket tournament, starting in January.

Mongia will lead the side sans Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, allrounder Ajit Agarkar and leftarm medium pacer Zaheer Khan.

West will play Central Zone at Kanpur (January 4-7) and North Zone at Mohali (January 11-14), a Mumbai Cricket Association release said on Friday.

The team: Nayan Mongia (wicketkeeper-capt), Connor Williams, Jacob Martin, Rakesh Patel and Valmik Buch (all from Baroda), Hrishikesh Kanitkar (vice-capt), Abhijit Kale and Iqbal Siddiqui (all three from Maharashtra), Wasim Jaffer, Vinod Kambli, Santosh Saxena, Sairaj Bahutule and Ramesh Powar (all from Mumbai), Prashant Joshi (Saurashtra) and Niraj Patel (Gujarat).

Mail Cricket Editor