Mayank Agarwal to lead Rest of India squad against MP, Sarfaraz misses out due to injury

Indian batsman Mayank Agarwal has been named the captain of the Rest of India team for their Irani Cup fixture against Madhya Pradesh. The match will take place in Gwalior and is scheduled to start on March 1. Mayank Agarwal was the highest run-scorer in the recently-concluded Ranji Trophy season and hence he has been asked to lead the Rest of India's squad. He scored 990 runs in 9 matches at an average of 82.50 including three centuries and six half-centuries. 

Himanshu Mantri has been named the captain of the Madhya Pradesh team in absence of regular captain Aditya Shrivastava. Madhya Pradesh won the Ranji Trophy in the 2021-22 season. They were initially slated to play their Irani Cup game at the start of the 2022-23 season. However, the match was allotted to Saurashtra because they were denied a chance to play the Irani Cup following their Ranji Trophy victory in 2019-20 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Meanwhile, Sarfaraz Khan, who was set to be part of the Rest of India squad, has been ruled out due to an injury. Sarfaraz has been in phenomenal form for the past three seasons. According to reports, Sarfaraz suffered a finger injury while playing in the DY Patil T20 Cup in Mumbai. Sarfaraz is currently recovering from the injury at a camp organised by Delhi Capitals in Kolkata.

Harvik Desai and Chetan Sakariya are the only players from Saurashtra's Ranji Trophy-winning team to be part of the Rest of India's squad. Saurashtra won the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy final after defeating Bengal by 9 wickets. The last edition of the Irani Cup was won by Rest of India after they beat Saurashtra by 8 wickets. 

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.

Image: PTI