Not Suryakumar Yadav! MI star named Mumbai captain for SMAT 2025-26 as full squad announced
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The Mumbai team for the upcoming Syed Myshtaq Ali Trophy has been announced, and recently traded Mumbai Indians star Shardul Thakur has been picked over Suryakumar Yadav as the skipper of the Mumbai State team.
Suryakumar Yadav, the current Team India T20I skipper and the seasoned Mumbai Indians batter who has been playing for the Mumbai state team for several seasons now, has lacked form recently, which has also raised doubts over his captaincy rise.
Suryakumar Yadav snubbed, Shardul Thakur handed Mumbai captaincy
After some not-so-convincing form, Suryakumar Yadav has still made it to the Mumbai squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Despite having made it to the team, he has not been named the captain any further.
Rather, Mumbai have named their bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur as the new T20I captain. He was earlier named the skipper for the Ranji Trophy season, after Ajinkya Rahane stepped down from the position.
Shardul Thakur has had experience playing for India and has been part of the Mumbai squad for over a decade; this time around, he has also been traded into the MI camp from the Lucknow Super Giants, ahead of the mini-auction.
Shivam Dube, the big CSK all-rounder who has emerged as a special performer for India recently with the ball, has also been named in the Mumbai squad. Youngsters Raghuvanshi and Ayush Mhatre have also been drafted into the squad and will play alongside the experienced Ajinkya Rahane.
The likes of Suryansh Shedge and Musheer Khan are named as the spin bowling all-rounders, while Sams Mulani and Tanush Kotian will be the lead spinners. Skipper Thakur, alongside Tushar Deshpande, is likely to lead the pace bowling deck.
Mumbai's Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy team announced
The senior selection committee of the Mumbai Cricket Association, which consisted of Mr Sanjay Patil (Chairman), Mr Ravi Thaker, Mr Jitendra Thackeray, Mr Vikrant Yeligeti, and Mr Deepak Jadhav, who went on to select the listed players to represent their state in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
Full squad: Shardul Thakur (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Ayush Mhatre, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Siddesh Lad, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Sairaj Patil, Musheer Khan, Suryansh Shedge, Atharva Ankolekar, Tanush Kotian, Shams Mulani, Tushar Deshpande, Irfan Umair, and Hardik Tamore (wk).
The Syde Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy will be played from the 26th of November 2025 at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.
Shardul Thakur to lead Mumbai in #SMAT !Angkrish Raghuvanshi to keep wickets! pic.twitter.com/ppNoseGl0b
— Gaurav Gupta (@toi_gauravG) November 21, 2025
Mumbai are ruling the Ranji Trophy under Shardul Thakur's captaincy
Ajinkya Rahane decided to step down from captaincy ahead of the start of the Ranji Trophy season in 2025-26. The Mumbai Cricket Association went on to name all-rounder Shardul Thakur as the new captain of their Ranji Trophy season.
Though Shardul Thakur could not perform equally consistently with the ball or the bat after being appointed captain, the team has performed convincingly under his leadership. Under his leadership, Mumbai has won 3 matches and is undefeated in the season with 24 points.
