The Duleep Trophy, 1985-86 saw the participation of all the five zonal teams that took part in all the previous editions of the tournament. The teams that played in the tournament were selected by the BCCI from five different geographical locations of the country. The teams were selected in accordance with the zonal format that was used in Ranji Trophy and the teams were actually representing their respective zones in Duleep Trophy.

The Central Zone and East Zone teams played against each other in the first match of Duleep Trophy, 1985-86 and the match was held at Vijayawada from 05-08 October, 1985. The match was not possible to be held due to some unavoidable reasons and as a result, it was declared as abandoned by the match officials. However, the match officials declared the East Zone team as the winner of the match on the toss of a coin. The East Zone team also entered into the Semi-Finals of Duleep Trophy, 1985-86, by winning this match.

The teams of North Zone and West Zone were involved in the first Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1985-86 and the match took place at Trivandrum from 11-14 October, 1985. Winning the toss, the West Zone skipper made a great decision of batting first in the match and got superb support from his batsmen. The decision was great, as the West Zone batsmen scored a mammoth total of 575 runs in the first innings. The opener, L Rajput became the top scorer for the West Zone by scoring a magnificent double century of 221 runs. D Vengsarkar also played wonderfully in Wes Zone's first innings and scored 110 runs to help his team get the huge total on the scoreboard. Maninder Singh took 5 wickets for 145 runs on behalf of North Zone in the West Zone's first innings. Though, their opponents got a huge total of 575 runs in the first innings, the North Zone batsmen never got demotivated and they also put on a huge total on the scoreboard in their first innings. The North Zone team scored 519 runs in the first innings, thanks to two superb centuries by M Amarnath and A Malhotra. While Amarnath scored 136 runs, Malhotra played a knock of 116 runs in North Zone's first innings. However, the North Zone team failed to get past the first innings total of West Zone and they were trailing by 56 run to West Zone. R Shastri bowled one of the best bowling figures in the history of Duleep Trophy in North Zone's first innings and took 8 wickets for 145 runs on behalf of West Zone. The stipulated duration of the match ended when the West Zone team reached the score of 52-1 in the second innings. The West Zone team was declared as the winner of the match for having a lead in the first innings and the team also entered into the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1985-86.

The second Semi-Final of Duleep Trophy, 1985-86 was played between the teams of South Zone and East Zone and the two teams played the match at Secunderabad from 11-14 October, 1985. Winning the toss, the East Zone skipper, J Arun Lal took the decision of fielding first in the match. Being put into bat first in the match, the South Zone batsmen played well and scored a good total of 293 runs for 7 wickets in their first innings. S Kirmani got the highest individual score of 61 runs for South Zone and K Qayyum also supported him well by scoring 60 runs. After, the South Zone skipper K Srikkanth declared the first innings on 293-7, the East Zone batsmen failed to surpass the total in their first innings. East Zone scored a total of 229 runs in the first innings, as none of the batsmen could convert their good start to a big score. However, the specified period of the match got over by the time the first innings of East Zone ended and the match officials declared the South Zone team as the winner of the drawn match. The South Zone teams won the match for having a lead in the first innings and it also entered into the Final of Duleep Trophy, 1985-86 by winning this match.

The Final of Duleep Trophy, 1985-86 saw the teams of South Zone and West Zone playing against each other at Bangalore from 17-21 October, 1985. The toss of the match was won by the West Zone skipper, R Shastri and he invited the South Zone team to bat first in the match. Batting first in the match, the South Zone batsmen played very well in their first innings and scored a good total of 305 runs. R Binny played wonderfully and scored a good century of 115 runs for South Zone in the first innings. R Khanwilkar also played well and scored 98 runs for his team. While replying to the first innings total of 305 runs made by South Zone, the West Zone batsmen played wonderfully and scored a huge total of 453 runs in their first innings. Two of the West Zone batsmen, D Vengsarkar and S Gavaskar played well and scored two superb centuries of 147 runs and 119 runs, respectively. N Yadav picked up 6 wickets for 109 runs on behalf of South Zone in West Zone's first innings. The South Zone team batted in the second innings with a huge deficit of 148 runs and as the batsmen failed to play well; the team could score only 236 runs in the second innings. The South Zone skipper, K Srikkanth scored a wonderful century of 120 runs for his team and also helped South Zone to set a target of 89 runs to win for West Zone, in the second innings. The West Zone batsmen faced no difficulties in achieving the target and scored 89 runs in the second innings by losing only 1 wicket. Thus, the West Zone team won the Final match with a huge margin of 9 wickets and also clinched the championship title in the Duleep Trophy, 1985-86.