The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a 15-member Rest Of India (RoI) squad for the Irani Cup which is slated to be held from October 1 to 5 in Lucknow. Ruturaj Gaikwad has been announced as the captain of the side with Abhimanyu Easwaran serving as his deputy. Meanwhile, Ishan Kishan's return to red-ball cricket has gained momentum with him having sealed a place in the ROI squad.
The RoI squad has openers aplenty with captain Gaikwad, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal and B Sai Sudharsan all designated opening batters and it would be interesting to see who will open the batting along with Gaikwad with him set to be guaranteed starter by virtue of being the captain.
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While Kishan and Dhruv Jurel are the two wicketkeeping options, one name that was missing from the RoI team was that of Sanju Samson. However, it is being learnt that Samson has not been included in the RoI squad for Irani Cup because he is likely to be picked for India's T20I series against Bangladesh which begins on October 6.
With the Irani Cup match scheduled to end on October 5, those featuring in the Mumbai vs RoI match are unlikely to feature in the India vs Bangladesh T20Is as they will not be able to join the team on time ahead of the white-ball series.
Irani Cup is a red-ball cricket match played between the Ranji Trophy-winning side and Rest Of India (RoI). With Mumbai having won the Ranji Troohy earlier this year, it's the Ajinkya Rahane-led contingent who will take on RoI in Irani Cup fixture this year.
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Rest of India: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Abhimanyu Easwaran (vice-captain), B Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Manav Suthar, Saransh Jain, Prasidh Krishna, Mukesh Kumar, Yash Dayal*, Ricky Bhui, Shashwat Rawat, Khaleel Ahmed, Rahul Chahar
Mumbai: Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Prithvi Shaw, Ayush Mhatre, Musheer Khan, Sarfaraz Khan*, Shreyas Iyer, Siddhesh Lad, Suryansh Shedge, Hardik Tamore (wk), Sidhaant Addhatrao (wk), Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Himanshu Singh, Shardul Thakur, Mohit Avasthi, Mohammad Juned Khan, Royston Dias.