Mayank Agarwal named captain of Rest of India squad

Karnataka’s skipper and an in-form opener, Mayank Agarwal, has been named as the skipper of the Rest of India's squad for their upcoming clash against Madhya Pradesh on March 1, in Gwalior, the BCCI confirmed in a press release.

The right-hander has sprung back up from a bad patch of form with a stunning Ranji Trophy season amassing 990 runs in 13 innings at an average of 82.50, where he has guided Karnataka home on numerous occasions alone. 

A long list of openers have been picked in the squad, including Yashasvi Jaiswal, Harvik Desai and Abhimanyu Easwaran. It would be interesting to see how the playing XI functions. 

In the middle order, the Rest of India team has Sudip Kumar Gharami, Baba Indrajith and Yash Dhull. One of Upendra Yadav or Desai will be behind the stumps. 

On the bowling front, the selectors have insisted with the likes of Bengal’s Akash Deep, Saurashtra’s Chetan Sakariya, Navdeep Saini and Bengal’s Mukesh Kumar. 

Saurabh Kumar and Mayank Markande have found their spot in the squad ahead of the likes of Shams Mulani and Jalaj Saxena. 

One of the biggest missing names from the Rest of India squad is Mumbai’s Sarfaraz Khan, who continued to tumble all records during the recently concluded Ranji Trophy. 

The right-handed batter was unavailable for selection owing to a hairline fracture on his left little finger and the selectors opted for Baba Indrajith as his replacement.

Rest of India squad: Mayank Agarwal (Captain), 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