Rajasthan Includes Fresh Faces In Squad For Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

Rajasthan will attempt to keep on their successful T20 form from recent seasons at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2022-23, which begins on October 11. Left-hand batter Ashok Menaria will work with new head coach Vineet Saxena.

The 15-man team announced on Saturday includes a number of fresh faces, and skipper Menaria has complete faith in the youngsters.

Rajasthan Skipper Ashok Menaria Backs Youngsters To Deliver

“Anirudh Singh Chauhan and Nikhil Sachdev have scored in heaps at the junior level and they deserved a chance this year. In the practice matches too the youngsters did well and I am hopeful they will deliver in the tournament,” said Menaria.

Rajasthan is in Group ‘A’ and will begin its campaign against Vidarbha on October 12 in Rajkot.

When asked about working with Saxena, Rajasthan captain stated, “I am looking forward to working with him. He was a wonderful batsman during his playing days who contributed a lot for the state. I have played with him before and I know him well already so there aren’t any adjustment issues here.”

Rajasthan Squad: Ashok Menaria, Yash Kothari, Anirudh Singh Chauhan, Mahipal Lomror, Salman Khan, Arjit Gupta, Rahul Chahar, Nikhil Sachdev, Kunal Singh Rathore, Shubham Sharma, Manav Suthar, Mohit Jain, Aniket Choudhary, Tanveer Ul-Haq, Kamlesh Nagarkoti.

38 Teams In Fight For The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2022

The SMAT 2022-23 will include 136 T20 matches amongst India’s 38 senior domestic men’s teams, which will represent prominent states and cities under the auspices of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The 38 teams are split into five Elite Groups: A, B, C, D, and E.

The victor of each of these groups advances directly to the quarterfinal round. They will be joined by the winners of the three pre-quarterfinals, which will be fought by the runners-up from each of the five groups, as well as the team with the most points during the group stage from all of the other teams across five groups:

Elite A: Mumbai, Railways, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Vidarbha, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram

Elite B: Puducherry, Punjab, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabad, Manipur, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh

Elite C: Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Services, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala

Elite D: Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland, Baroda, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Saurashtra

Elite E: Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Chandigarh, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand

The three-week-long competition to determine India’s National T20 champions will be held at Rajkot, Mohali, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Indore, and Lucknow.

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