LUCKNOW, Aug. 8 -- Young keeper-batter from Uttar Pradesh, Dhruv Jurel will lead Central Zone in the 2025-26 Duleep Trophy that will kick off the domestic season in Bengaluru later this month. Central Zone will begin their campaign against North East Zone in the four-day quarterfinal, scheduled for August 28 to 31 at the BCCI COE Ground-2 at Bangalore. Agra's Jurel, who kept wickets as a substitute after Rishabh Pant's injury in England recently, took three catches and scored 53 runs in the final test at The Oval which India won by six runs in a thrilling finish. As a leader, he will surely be using his experience in the Duleep Trophy to make Central Zone win. At the end of England series, Jurel holds the India record of never being in a losing Test side. The Uttar Pradesh star has seen India win all five Tests he has played in. The overall record is held by the West Indies' Eldine Baptiste, who played in 10 Tests over a seven-year-long period and never lost any. He was a bowling all-rounder, but his stats don't pop out - 16 wickets at 35.18 with no fifers and 233 runs at a batting average of 23.30 with the best of 87* - which explains the start-stop career. Also from Uttar Pradesh, China man bowler Kuldeep Yadav, was recently part of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, has also been picked in the Central Zone squad for the opening event of the new domestic season. In fact, Kuldeep travelled to England for a five-match Test series but didn't feature in a single match, which drew some flak. The left-arm spinner made his Test debut in 2017, but since then, he has played only 13 matches. He last played a red-ball match for India against New Zealand in 2024. However, if Kuldeep gets picked in India's squad for the Asia Cup, left-arm spinner from Uttarakhand Yuvraj Chaudhary may replace him for the Duleep Trophy. The Asia Cup, which will run from September 9 to September 28, will overlap with the Duleep Trophy. The other key player in the Central Zone side is Madhya Pradesh's Rajat Patidar, who has been deputy to Jurel, but his availability will depend only on his fitness clearance. Patidar, who has so far featured in three Tests for India, has also scored 4,738 runs in 68 first-class matches at an average of 43.07, and his presence in the side will be a big boost. Captain of Uttar Pradesh's Ranji Trophy squad in the last season, Aryan Juyal, too has been included in the side for the Duleep Trophy. The Duleep Trophy has reverted to its traditional format of a zonal contest after a season where four teams - A, B, C and D - comprising players in the Test fray were picked by the Ajit Agarkar-led senior men's selection committee. Teams for this year's tournament were picked by zonal selection committees comprising one member from each of the state sides from the zone. For record, Central Zone have won the prestigious Duleep Trophy five times besides finishing runner-up 10 times in the history of the event since 1961....