Mayank Agarwal to lead Rest of India in Irani Cup game against MP, Sarfaraz Khan ruled out

Mayank Agarwal, an Indian batsman, has been selected captain of the Rest of India squad for their Irani Cup match against Madhya Pradesh. The event will be held in Gwalior and is set to begin on March 1. Mayank Agarwal was the leading run-scorer in the just finished Ranji Trophy season, hence he has been asked to captain the Rest of India squad. In nine matches, he scored 990 runs at an average of 82.50, including three centuries and six half-centuries.

Himanshu Mantri has been selected captain of the Madhya Pradesh team in place of regular captain Aditya Shrivastava. Madhya Pradesh won the Ranji Trophy in the 2021-22 season. They were supposed to play their Irani Cup game in the start of the 2022-23 season. However, the match was assigned to Saurashtra because they were denied the opportunity to play in the Irani Cup following their Ranji Trophy victory in 2019-20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Sarfaraz Khan, who was supposed to join the Rest of India squad, has been ruled out owing to injury. Sarfaraz has been on fire for the past three seasons. Sarfaraz sustained a finger injury while competing in the DY Patil T20 Cup in Mumbai, according to sources. Sarfaraz is now rehabilitating from his injury at a Delhi Capitals-hosted camp in Kolkata.

Advertisement

The only players from Saurashtra’s Ranji Trophy-winning team to make the Rest of India squad are Harvik Desai and Chetan Sakariya. Saurashtra defeated Bengal by 9 wickets in the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy final. The last Irani Cup was won by Rest of India, who defeated Saurashtra by 8 wickets.

Advertisement

Irani Cup – Rest of India vs Madhya Pradesh: Full squads

Rest of India squad: Mayank Agarwal (capt), 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 squad: Himanshu Mantri (capt & 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.

Also Read: Sarfaraz Khan addresses Suryakumar Yadav’s selection for India-Australia series

Advertisement