Amongst all domestic tournaments, Duleep Trophy has always held a special place in the hearts of Indian cricket fans. The zonal teams with all their might, fighting tooth and nail, to win the coveted trophy and eager to gain national prominence made for some mouth-watering clashes over time.

As the traditional zonal contest makes way for a four-team contest this year, let us have a glimpse of some of the iconic Duleep Trophy moments and interesting insights from the past.

Duleep Trophy 1991: Two teenagers making merry

It was the Duleep Trophy debut for two players, who would go on to build countless memorable partnerships for Indian cricket later. Yes! Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly were up against each other in this epic Duleep Trophy match between West Zone and East Zone at Guwahati in 1991.

Sachin, at just 17 years of age, already had an international century to his name. The master didn’t disappoint here as well, scoring a mammoth 159 and completing the cycle of centuries on debut, having already done so in the Ranji Trophy and Irani Trophy earlier. Sourav too wasn’t ready to go down without a fight as he also made his Duleep Trophy debut memorable with a classy unbeaten 124, but West Zone proceeded further on the back of their first-innings lead.

Duleep Trophy 2002 and 2003: The Pathan of swing is launched

Two Duleep Trophies, eight matches, 41 wickets! And soon Irfan Pathan was on the flight for India’s tour down under in December 2003. Irfan’s dream run in the 2002 edition saw him finish as the top wicket-taker in the competition with 22 wickets and helped West Zone to the title.

He carried the same form into the next year finishing in the top-five wicket-takers list in 2003 convincing the selectors that he was ready for the big stage. With an injury to Zaheer Khan, Irfan was fortunate to get his debut cap and made an instant impact with his pace and swing.

Duleep Trophy 2004 to 2008: Foreign Presence

Duleep Trophy saw an interesting upgrade after the turn of the century with a foreign team also participating in the competition along with the domestic or zonal teams from 2004. This saw an improvement in the overall quality of the game with ‘A’ teams from England, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka taking part in different years.

Kevin Pietersen was the star attraction when England A took part in the 2003-04 campaign, finishing as the top run-getter with 345 runs from two matches. However, this practice did not continue for long and stopped after the England Lions took part in the 2007-08 edition.

Duleep Trophy 2016: A tryst with the pink ball

The Duleep Trophy 2016 edition was a revolutionary step in the evolution of the domestic game as the pink-ball day-night Test matches were introduced to woo more fans to the longest format of the game. India Blue won the title leaving India Green and India Red behind in the tournament that was well received by the fans.

Cheteshwar Pujara warmed up nicely for the New Zealand series, scheduled after this tournament, as he finished on top of the batting charts with a mammoth 453 runs from just three innings including a double hundred and a big hundred too. Kuldeep Yadav solved the pink ball puzzle to finish as the highest wicket-taker with 17 wickets from just three matches.

Duleep Trophy records and the Marathon Men

Indian internationals Wasim Jaffer and Narendra Hirwani lead the overall batting and bowling charts in the Duleep Trophy competition.

Wasim Jaffer has been a domestic stalwart with a truckload of runs across Ranji Trophy, Irani Cup and Duleep Trophy. The marathon man from Mumbai has amassed 2545 runs from 30 matches at an impressive average of 55.32, including eight centuries and 13 fifties.

Leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani, meanwhile, leads the wicket charts with a collection of 126 wickets from 29 matches and with eight five-wicket hauls.