Irani Cup: Pant to lead Rest of India; Sarfaraz named vice-captain

Akash Deep, who last played a competitive game in February, has been included, subject to fitness

Rishabh Pant will captain the Rest of India against the 2025-26 2025-26 Ranji Trophy champions Jammu and Kashmir in the Irani Cup match, which will begin on October 1 in Srinagar.

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. Allrounder Anukul Roy, who had an impressive Duleep Trophy, both with bat and ball, as East Zone won the title, has also been named in the squad.

Suthar has had a sensational start to his India career, having picked up 23 wickets in his first three Tests, which includes a match haul of ten wickets. He has also contributed 79 runs with the bat across four innings. Jain, meanwhile, made his international debut in the second Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo, where he picked up three wickets. A seasoned domestic performer, Jain has a total of 51 wickets in the last two Ranji seasons. He was also part of the Central Zone more recently in the Duleep Trophy.

Pant will captain and keep wicket, with Aryan Juyal as the back-up wicketkeeper. Jharkhand batter Shikhar Mohan, who scored 85 and 52 in the final of the Duleep Trophy and was Jharkhand's leading run-scorer in the last Ranji season, has also been included.

The Irani Trophy serves as the precursor to the Ranji season, which will get underway on October 11.

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

*subject to fitness