Irani Cup: Pant to lead Rest of India; Sarfaraz named vice-captain
Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan will be captain and vice-captain of the Rest of India squad • Associated Press
Sarfaraz Khan has been named the vice-captain, with fast bowler Akash Deep also included, subject to fitness. Akash Deep last played a competitive match in February when he turned out for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy semi-final. He has since been sidelined with a lower-back stress injury, which forced him to miss the entirety of IPL 2026 and the following games for India.
The selectors have rewarded last year's Ranji performers, with the season's top four run-getters R Smaran (950 runs), Ayush Doseja (949), Sanat Sangwan (828) and Sudip Kumar Gharami (797) all named in the 15-member squad. Mukesh Kumar and Mukesh Choudhary will lead the pace attack, while Manav Suthar and Saransh Jain are the main spinners.
Rest of India squad
Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), Sanat Sangwan, Shikhar Mohan, Sudip Gharami, Sarfaraz Khan (vice-capt), R Smaran, Manav Suthar, Saransh Jain, Akash Deep*, Mukesh Kumar, Mukesh Choudhary, Aryan Juyal (wk), Aryan Pandey, Anukul Roy, Ayush Doseja
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