Irani Cup 2023: Mayank Agarwal to lead ROI against MP, Sarfaraz Khan misses out due to injury

New Delhi: Mayank Agarwal is set to lead the Rest of India in the Irani Cup against Madhya Pradesh. Agarwal was the highest run-scorer in the recently concluded Ranji Trophy season. As reported by ESPNCricinfo, Mumbai’s star batter Sarfaraz Khan is set to miss the game due to an injury to his finger.

Ideally, the winner of the recently concluded Ranji Trophy plays the Irani Cup against ROI but Madhya Pradesh has been given the slot in place of Saurashtra as last time Saurashtra, the winners in 2019-20 did not get to play due to the COVID-19 pandemic and this led to a change in the schedules. The match will be held in Gwalior from March 1 onward.

Reportedly, the Irani Cup fixture was to be held in Indore but was shifted to Gwalior due to the third Test between India and Australia in Indore.

Mayank Agarwal, who is looking to get back into India’s Test squad has a great chance as he might be opening the inning with Bengal’s Abhimanyu Easwaran. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Harvik Desai, B Indrajith, and Yash Dhull are some other noted batters in ROI. The pace department will be led by Mukesh Kumar, who recently made it to the Indian team, along with Akash Deep, Chetan Sakariya and Navdeep Saini.

Sarfaraz, who is knocking on the doors of India’s selection committee has been surrounded by the buzz lately. He sustained an injury during the DY Patil T20 Cup in Mumbai and is currently recovering at the Delhi Capitals camp.

Surprisingly, the selectors did not pick the season’s top wicket-takers, Jalaj Saxena and Shams Mulani, and went for Saurabh Kumar and leggie Mayank Markande for the spin attack.

Madhya Pradesh, which won the last season and made it to the semis this time, will be led by Himanshu Mantri. The team has some big names in Rajat Patidar, Avesh Khan and Venkatesh Iyer. Yash Dubey will be another batter to look out for.