He had also missed the Buchi Babu tournament because of the injury.
Left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore has been reportedly ruled out of South Zone’s Duleep Trophy 2925 semi-final against North Zone scheduled to start from September 4.
According to The Indian Express, the Tamil Nadu cricketer will miss the game as he is still recovering from a finger injury. That injury had also forced Sai Kishore to miss the Buchi Babu Trophy, where he was to represent the TNCA President’s XI. He had sustained the injury during a first-division club match in Chennai earlier in August.
The 28-year-old had recently turned up for Surrey in a couple of the County Championship Division One matches in England. He registered figures of 2/119 and 2/53 against Yorkshire, and followed it up with figures of 2/26 and 5/72 against Durham.
Prior to that, he was in action for the iDream Tiruppur Tamizhans in the 2025 edition of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL). He ended up picking 12 wickets from nine matches in that tournament and helped them win the TNPL title.
Sai Kishore also had a quite good run in IPL 2025 with Gujarat Titans (GT). He collected 19 wickets from 15 matches at an average of 20.68, and ended the season as Gujarat Titans’ second highest wicket-taker behind Prasidh Krishna (25 wickets).
In another development, South Zone will also miss the services of Tilak Varma, who will be flying along with the Indian team to UAE for the Asia Cup 2025 tournament.
The Hyderabad cricketer was initially named the skipper of the South Zone team, but now his absence means that Kerala’s Mohammed Azharuddeen will lead the side. Azharuddeen was initially named the vice-captain of the South Zone side. Shaik Rasheed will replace Tilak Varma whereas Ankit Sharma will replace Sai Kishore.
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Tilak Varma is part of India’s 15-member squad for the Asia Cup, which will get underway from September 9. The Suryakumar Yadav-led side will take on UAE in their Group A opener on September 10, before facing Pakistan at the same venue four days later. The Men in Blue will then travel to Abu Dhabi to face Oman in their final group stage match on September 19.
With the Duleep Trophy semi-finals only starting on September 4, it becomes impossible for Tilak Varma to feature for South Zone, as the Asia Cup will begin right after the Duleep Trophy semi-finals.
