Four from Bengal in Irani Cup squad

Kolkata: Four from Bengal found berth in the Rest of India squad which will play Madhya Pradesh in the upcoming Irani Cup at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior from Wednesday.Although Saurashtra won this year’s Ranji Trophy, it will be MP who will will lock horns with ROI since the Covid-19 pandemic, which broke out a week after their first Ranji victory in March 2020, prevented them from playing the Irani Cup.Karnataka skipper Mayank Agarwal, the leading run-getter in the recently-concluded Ranji Trophy season, will lead the 16-member side. Agarwal is likely to open with Abhimanyu Easwaran, who has been one of the top run-getters for Bengal this season.Youngster Sudip Gharami got a chance to showcase his talent after a successful Ranji season by being included in the ROI side for the first time. Gharami and Abhimanyu were sixth and seventh in the Ranji top-run-getters list with 803 and 798 runs respectively in Bengal’s runners-up finish. Gharami will have to fight for a place with Yash Dhull, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Baba Indrajith.However, veteran Anushtup Majumder, who scored 867 runs this season, was ignored.The Rest’s fast-bowling unit will be led by the Bengal pace duo of Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep. While the latter claimed 41 wickets from 10 matches, Mukesh picked up 22 matches from five games.Ranji winners Saurashtra had wicketkeeper-opener Harvik Desai and left-arm seamer Chetan Sakariya in the squad while Ranji’s second highest run-scorer Arpit Vasavada was left out.Rest of India squad: Mayank Agarwal (c), 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.
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