Mayank Agarwal who led Karnataka and was the leading run-getter in the recently-concluded Ranji Trophy season is set to be the captain of the Rest of India in the Irani Cup match against Madhya Pradesh. The tournament is scheduled to start on March 1 in Gwalior.
Agarwal is likely to partner with Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran. On the other hand, Mumbai star batter Sarfaraz Khan has been ruled out of the tournament after sustaining a finger injury. He will be the most notable absentee in the 16-member ROI team.
The match was initially scheduled to be played in Indore but was shifted to Gwalior after the Holkar Stadium earned the right to host the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia, starting March 1.
Sudip Kumar Gharami, Yashasvi Jaiswal, B Indrajith, and Yash Dhull will form the fulcrum of ROI's batting unit. ROI's fast-bowling department will be led by the Bengal pace duo of Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep and will have Sakariya and Delhi's Navdeep Saini for the company. Uttar Pradesh left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar and Punjab leg-spinner Mayank Markande are also part of the ROI squad.
On the other hand, Madhya Pradesh will be led by Himanshu Mantri in the absence of regular captain Aditya Shrivastava. They have Rajat Patidar, Venkatesh Iyer, Avesh Khan, Shubham Sharma, and Yash Dubey in the squad.
Full Squads:
Rest of India: Mayank Agarwal (c), Sudip Kumar Gharami, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Harvik Desai, Mukesh Kumar, Atit Sheth, Chetan Sakariya, Navdeep Saini, Upendra Yadav (wk), Mayank Markande, Saurabh Kumar, Akash Deep, B Indrajith, Pulkit Narang, Yash Dhull.
Madhya Pradesh: Himanshu Mantri (c&wk), Rajat Patidar, Yash Dubey, Harsh Gawli, Shubham Sharma, Venkatesh Iyer, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Aman Solanki, Kumar Kartikeya, Saransh Jain, Avesh Khan, Ankit Kushwah, Gaurav Yadav, Anubhav Agarwal, Mihir Hirwani.
