Mayank Agarwal to lead ROI in Irani Cup

India batter Mayank Agarwal will captain the Rest of India (ROI) team against Madhya Pradesh in the Irani Cup, which will be commencing from 1st of March at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior. Agarwal has been rewarded for being the leading run-scorer of the recently-concluded Ranji Trophy season where he scored 990 runs in 13 innings, with a highest score of 249. Agarwal last featured for India in March 2022 in a Test against Sri Lanka and has since failed to secure his place on the national side. The right-hander is eyeing a comeback after a stellar Ranji season. Sarfaraz Khan was unavailable for selection owing to a hairline fracture on his left little finger. The All-India Senior Selection Committee named Baba Indrajith as his replacement for the tournament. The Mumbai lad is the most noteworthy exclusion from the 16-member roster. The Irani Cup venue was shifted to Gwalior from Indore after the third India-Australia Test was assigned to the Holkar Stadium. As a result, the Irani tie had to be moved from its original location. The Irani Cup match will mark Gwalior’s return to first-class competition after more than six years. Abhimanyu Easwaran, the Bengal opener, will partner Agarwal at the top. Abhimanyu, who was a member of the Test squad that travelled to Bangladesh in December, is also hoping to make a breakthrough. He had previously led India A on a shadow tour to Bangladesh when he scored two consecutive hundreds. The other top-order batsmen on the Rest of India team include Yash Dhull, Sudip Kumar Gharami, Yashasvi Jaiswal, B Indrajith and Sudip Kumar Gharami. With 803 and 798 runs respectively, Gharami and Abhimanyu finished sixth and seventh in the Ranji top run scorers list as Bengal finished as runners-up. Only two members of Saurashtra’s championship-winning team were chosen, left-arm seamer Chetan Sakariya and wicketkeeper-opener Harvik Desai. A four-man attack featuring Sakariya, Navdeep Saini from Delhi, and Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep from Bengal completes the fast-bowling unit’