Ace Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan has been ruled out of the upcoming Irani Cup 2023 tie between the Rest of India and last season's Ranji Trophy winners Madhya Pradesh, which will start in Gwalior in two days.
Sarfaraz Khan sustained a left index finger injury while playing in the DY Patil T20 tournament, PTI reported. He was supposed to represent the Rest of India's team in the Irani Cup match. Owing to the injury, Sarfaraz was wearing a protective fiber cast on the finger and didn't bat or field during the day. He did help his teammates with drinks.
Currently, he is recuperating at the Delhi Capitals’ camp in Eden Gardens.
Khan scored 556 runs in 6 games this Ranji season with the help of three centuries and an average of more than 90. His First-Class average of 79.65 after 54 innings is only second to Don Bradman (95.14).
On the other hand, it has been reported that Mayank Agarwal is most likely to captain the Rest of India's squad in the Irani Cup 2023 match against Madhya Pradesh at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior starting Wednesday.
Though the BCCI is yet to announce the squad, Sportstar reported that Agarwal will lead the team comprising five opening batters.
Agarwal struck a double hundred (249) and 55 in the semi-final for Karnataka against Saurashtra and ended Ranji Trophy as the leading run-scorer with 990 runs from 13 innings, averaging 82.50 while recording three tons and six fifties.
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Bengal batters Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sudip Gharami are named alongside Mumbai opener Yashasvi Jaiswal. Wicketkeeper-opener Harvik Desai and left-arm seamer Chetan Sakariya are the only members from the Ranji Trophy title-winning Saurashtra team in the RoI squad.
Wicketkeeper Upendra Yadav, Baba Indrajith, and Delhi skipper Yash Dhull are the other batting options in the squad.
Reported ROI squad for the Irani Cup match:
Mayank Agarwal, 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, Baba Indrajith, Pulkit Narang, Yash Dhull.
Reported Madhya Pradesh squad for the Irani Cup match:
Rajat Patidar, Yash Dubey, Himanshu Mantri (wk), Harsh Gawli, Shubham Sharma, Venkatesh Iyer, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Aman Solanki, Kumar Kartikeya, Saransh Jain, Avesh Khan, Ankit Kushwah, Gaurav Yadav, Anubhav Agarwal, Mihir Hirwani.
(Sportstar/PTI reports)
