Hanuma Vihari to lead Rest of India in Irani Cup against Saurashtra

NEW DELHI: Prolific batter Hanuma Vihari will lead the Rest of India side against 2019-20 Ranji Trophy champion Saurashtra in the Irani Cup clash, which is returning to the calendar after three years.

The BCCI announced a 16-man squad for the red-ball tournament, which is set to be held in Rajkot from October 1-5. The Irani Cup could not be played in the previous two seasons due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The team has a good batting unit with talented red-ball specialist Mayank Agarwal and young Priyank Panchal, who recently led India A against New Zealand A and was also part of the Duleep Trophy winning West Zone squad. The squad also has talented youngsters in Yash Dhull and Yashaswi Jaiswal, who had scored a double hundred in Duleep Trophy in the Ajinkya Rahane-led West Zone.

Emerging fast bowler Umran Malik, big-hitting Sarfaraaz Khan are also part of the ROI squad. Test batter Cheteshwar Pujara is likely to appear for Saurashtra in the match.

ROI SQUAD: Hanuma Vihari (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Priyank Panchal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Yash Dhull, Sarfaraaz Khan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KS Bharat, Upendra Yadav, Jayant Yadav, Saurabh Kumar, R Sai Kishore, Mukesh Kumar, Umran Malik, Kuldeep Sen, Arzan Nagwaswalla