Rishabh Pant to captain Rest of India in Irani Trophy

Rishabh Pant has been named captain of the Rest of India, with Sarfaraz Khan as his deputy, for the Irani Trophy 2026 against Ranji Trophy champions Jammu and Kashmir. The one-match contest begins on October 1 in Srinagar.

Sarfaraz replaced the injured Sai Sudharsan in India’s squad for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka but has not played first-class cricket for some time. He was part of Chennai Super Kings’ squad in IPL 2026, scoring 161 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 169.47.

Akash Deep has also been included in the squad, although his participation depends on fitness as he continues to recover from a lower back stress injury. His last competitive appearance was the Ranji Trophy semifinal between Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir in Kalyani in February, where he took 3 for 46 in the second innings after going wicketless in the first. The injury also sidelined him from the 19th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Mukesh Kumar and Mukesh Choudhary will lead the pace attack alongside Deep, while right-arm off-break bowler Saransh Jain and left-arm orthodox spinner Manav Suthar will handle the spin duties. Batting allrounder Anukul Roy, who made significant contributions to East Zone’s successful Duleep Trophy campaign, including a five-wicket haul against North East Zone, has also been named in the squad.

Sikhar Mohan, Jharkhand’s leading run scorer with 613 runs in the 2025–26 Ranji Trophy season and the scorer of 85 and 52 in the Duleep Trophy final against South Zone, has earned a place as well.

The top run accumulators from the previous Ranji Trophy season have been rewarded, with Karnataka’s Ravichandran Smaran (950 runs), Delhi’s Ayush Doseja (949 runs) and Sanat Sangwan (828 runs), and Bengal’s Sudip Kumar Gharami (797 runs) all included in the squad.

Rest of India squad for Irani Trophy 2027:

Rishabh Pant [C, WK], Sanat Sangwan, Shikhar Mohan, Sudip Gharami, Sarfaraz Khan [VC], Smaran Ravichandran, Manav Suthar, Saransh Jain, Akash Deep*, Mukesh Kumar, Mukesh Choudhary, Aryan Juyal [WK], Aryan Pandey, Anukul Roy, Ayush Doseja.