In frame: Ruturaj Gaikwad; Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (Source: AFP & X.com/BCCIdomestic)
The Indian domestic season 2026-27 kicked off with the high-profile Duleep Trophy in Bengaluru. The red-ball curtain-raiser has been closely monitored, as it will set the tone for India’s path to next year’s World Test Championship final and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home in January-February.
The 63rd edition of the tournament features numerous international players across all six teams. Notably, in the first round, that is, the quarterfinals, names like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan, Arshdeep Singh, and Ruturaj Gaikwad were among the biggest in their respective zonal squads.
The Duleep Trophy 2026 Quarterfinal 1 was played between East Zone and North East Zone at the CoE Ground 2. Meanwhile, the 2nd Quarterfinal featured North Zone against West Zone at the BCCI CoE Ground 1, Bengaluru.
That being said, in this article, let’s take a look at how Indian-capped cricketers performed in the Duleep Trophy 2026 Quarterfinals.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi shines with the ball in hand for East Zone
East Zone squad features numerous prominent players, namely, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan, Shahbaz Ahmed, Anukul Roy, Mohammed Shami, and Mukesh Kumar.
As a result, they comfortably defeated North East Zone by an innings and 210 runs.
Talking about individual performances, after openers Abhimanyu Easwaran (15 off 20) and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (8 off 6) got out cheaply, followed by a slump by captain Ishan Kishan (4 off 9), Shahbaz Ahmed secured a career-best 167 in the first innings to help East Zone put 467 on the board. Anukul Roy, too, played a part with his 37 off 97.
Shahbaz Ahmed starred once again in the bowling department. The left-arm orthodox scalped 3 in North East Zone’s 1st innings and another one in the second.
Anukul Roy, who managed just a wicket in the first innings, was almost unplayable at times on the third day. Operating primarily from the around-the-wicket angle, he kept the wicket-to-wicket line going, and coupled with his arm ball and subtle changes in pace, chugged away.
For his remarkable bowling, Anukul Roy earned a well-deserved five-wicket haul.
On the other hand, Indian prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi then made his presence felt on the scorecard, picking up two wickets in an over. Bowling his left-arm orthodox spin, he first got Kishan Lyngdoh to miscue an aerial shot over the covers before luring Imliwati Lemtur into a forward push, with the ball taking his outside edge through to Kishan.
However, the star Indian pace duo, Mohammed Shami and Mukesh Kumar, couldn’t impress massively as Shami went wicketless, while the latter secured 2.
West Zone, despite a stellar squad knocked out in Duleep Trophy 2026 Quarterfinals
Ruturaj Gaikwad-led West Zone were knocked out in the Duleep Trophy 2026 quarter-finals after losing to North Zone by 52 runs.
The West Zone squad featured 4 capped Indian players: Gaikwad, Prithwi Shaw, Shardul Thakur, and Tushar Deshpande.
Also read: India's Test Discards For Whom Duleep Trophy 2026 Could Be Make-Or-Break
Nonetheless, while chasing a decent target of 287 in the fourth innings, West crumbled on a spin-friendly red soil, getting bowled out for 234.
Out-of-favour Indian batter Prithvi Shaw failed in both the innings, scoring only 22 and 6, respectively.
Moreover, despite a captain’s knock and a promising partnership between skipper Gaikwad and Musheer Khan (who scored 96), quick breakthroughs on the final morning sealed West Zone’s shocking exit.
Lastly, Tushar Deshpande, taking 4 wickets for 57 runs in 15 overs, including 3 maidens and an economy rate of 3.80, was the pick of the bowlers for the West.
North Zone, starring Arshdeep Singh, goes past a star-studded West Zone
In another fixture, North Zone defeated the Ruturaj Gaikwad-led West Zone by 52 runs in a low-scoring Duleep Trophy quarterfinal at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
Batting first, North Zone had a decent start. When Ayush Badoni scored 51, Anshul Kamboj launched a counter-attacking assault, smashing 60 off 52 balls with five fours and five sixes.
Kamboj top-scored in the first innings to shore up North's total, lifting them from a precarious 161 for 7 to 251.
North were well served by Indian pacer Arshdeep Singh, who had four wickets in his first red-ball game in nearly a year. Three of those scalps came in the first innings, with Arshdeep troubling West's top order with his late swing in both directions.
Anshul Kamboj, who took 3 wickets in 2 innings, also had an impressive all-round outing. He dismissed the threatening Mumbai pair of Shams Mulani and Tanush Kotian in quick succession with the old ball to help North pocket a 64-run lead.
North Zone will next play the Tilak Varma-led South Zone in the first semi-final, while East Zone, who beat North East Zone in the other quarter-final, play the Rajat Patidar-led Central Zone, the defending champions, in the second semi-final. Both games will be played at the Centre of Excellence from August 30.
Note for the readers - North East Zone did not feature any capped Indian cricketer.
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