Rahul Dravid's son Samit earns maiden Maharaja Trophy T20 contract

Rahul Dravid's son Samit secured his first-ever Maharaja Trophy T20 contract when Mysore Warriors secured his services for INR 50,000 at the player auction in Bengaluru on July 25 (Thursday). The 18-year-old all-rounder was part of the Karnataka Under-19 team that won the 2023-24 Cooch Behar Trophy and recently also turned up for KSCA XI in a three-day match against Lancashire in Alur. 

Fast bowler Prasidh Krishna too was snapped up by Mysore Warriors. He found no bidders when he was initially listed in Category A at a base price of INR 2 lakh, but in the end, but when he was brought back in Category B, the Warriors secured the Karnataka boy's services for INR 1 lakh. The franchises were hesitant given Prasidh's recent bout with injuries, which includes undergoing a quadriceps surgery earlier this year, that led to him missing the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season.

He has been out of action since January this year, when he turned up for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy match against Gujarat in Ahmedabad. Prasidh has played two Tests, 17 One-Day Internationals (ODI), and five Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) since making his debut in 2021. Most recently, he played in the Cape Town Test against South Africa in January after making his debut in the Boxing Day fixture at Centurion.

Top-order batter LR Chethan became the most expensive player in the auction when he was bought by Bengaluru Blasters for INR 8.6 lakh from a base price of INR 1 lakh. He turned up for Gulbarga Mystics last season, finishing as their leading run-getter with 309 runs in 11 innings.

Leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal was the most expensive player after Chethan, going to Mangaluru Dragons for INR 7.6 lakh, while Mysore acquired Krishnappa Gowtham's services for INR 7.4 lakh. Meanwhile, Aneeshwar Gautam, who represented India in the Under-19 World Cup in 2022, went to Hubli Tigers for INR 6.2 lakh, up from a base price of INR 50,000.

Hubli are the defending champions in the tournament, having beaten Mysore Warriors by eight runs in the final last year at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.

Squads after auction:

Hubli Tigers: Manish Pandey (R), Shrijith KL (R), Manvanth Kumar (R), Vidwath Kaverappa (R), KC Cariappa, Mohammed Taha, Thippa Reddy, Karthikeya KP, Kumar LR, Aadarsh Prajwal, Kruthik Krishna, Aneeshwar Gautam, Madhav Prakash Bajaj, Shreesha S Acahar, Daman Deep Singh, Mitrakant Yada, Nishchith Pai, Rishi Bopanna

Mysore Warriors: Karun Nair (R), CA Karthik (R), S.U. Karthik (R), Manoj Bhandage (R), J Suchith, K Gowtham, Vidyadhar Patil, Venkatesh M, Harshil Dharmani, Goutham Mishra, Dhanush Gowda, Samit Dravid, Deepak Devadiga, Sumit Kumar, Smayan Srivastava, Jasper EJ, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Sarfaraz Ashraf

Gulbarga Mystics: Devdutt Padikkal (R), Vyshak Vijaykumar (R), Smaran Ravi (R), Aneesh KV (R), Pravin Dubey, Luvnith Sisodia, Sharath BR, Aaditya Nair, Monish Reddy, Sharan Goud, Yashovardhan Parantap, Nathan Dmello Joachim, Faizan Riaz, Ritesh Bhatkal, Wahid Faizan Khan, Abhishek Prabhakar, Prithvi Shekhawat, Shimon Luiz

Shivamogga Lions: Abhinav Manohar (R), Nihal Ullal (R), Shivraj S (R), Vasuki Koushik (R), Pradeep T, Hardik Raj, Dhruv Prabhakar, Anand Doddamani, Rajvir Wadhwa, Avinash D, Dheeraj Mohan, Bharath Dhuri, Aadithya Vishwa Karma, Aditya Mani, Rohit K, Rohan Naveen, Sharath HS, Mohith BA

Bengaluru Blasters: Mayank Agarwal (R), Suraj Ahuja (R), Shubhang Hegde (R), Mohsin Khan (R), Anirudha Joshi, Naveen MG, Prateek Jain, Chethan LR, Melu Kranthi Kumar, Santokh Singh, Aditya Goyal, Rakshith S, Varun Rao TN, Niranjan Naik, Lavish Kaushal, Varun Kumar HC, Shikhar Shetty, Bheem Rao Navale

Mangaluru Dragons: Nikin Jose (R), Rohan Patil (R), Siddharth KV (R), Paras Gurbax Arya (R), Rohan Patil, Paras Gurbax Arya, Siddharth KV, Nikin Jose, Shreyas Gopal, Dheeraj J Gowda, Darshan MB, Macneil Hadley Noronha, Tushar Singh, Lankesh KS, Samarth Nagaraj, Sankalp SS, Abhilash Shetty, Nischith Rao, Lochan S Gowda, Pranav Bhatia, Sanjay Ashwin, Sagar Solanki

*R - Retained

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