Kolkata : India’s star wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, who is India’s highest run-scorer in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC), will captain the Rest of India (ROI) squad in the Irani Cup. The 2026 edition of the Irani Cup will be played between ROI and 2025-26 Ranji champions Jammu and Kashmir at Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar from October 1 to 5.
Pant will lead the star-studded ROI team, which also includes Sarfaraz Khan, Manav Suthar, Mukesh Kumar, Saransh Jain, Harsh Dubey and Akash Deep, among others.
Akash Deep’s participation in the match, however, is subject to fitness.
Delhi’s Sanat Sangwan and Ayush Doseja are also part of the ROI squad, along with Bengal’s Sudip Gharami, Jharkhand’s Shikhar Mohan and Karnataka’s Smaran Ravichandran.
Mohan scored twin fifties for East Zone in the final of the Duleep Trophy 2026 last week and helped Ishan Kishan & Co. win the title. The left-handed batter is expected to bat at No. 3 in the Irani Cup.
Pant’s inclusion in the Rest of India squad as captain means he was not picked in India’s ODI squad for the three-match series against the West Indies. In place of Pant, who last played a one-day match for India in August 2024, Dhruv Jurel has been picked as KL Rahul’s deputy.
The one-off Irani Cup match will allow Pant to get some much-needed game time ahead of India’s all-format tour of New Zealand. India will tour New Zealand in October for five T20Is, five ODIs and two Test matches.
Pant will be a key player for the Indian team in the two Tests in New Zealand, which are must-win matches for the Shubman Gill-led side to keep their chances of qualifying for the WTC 2027 final alive.
Jammu and Kashmir will miss the services of star fast bowler Auqib Nabi Dar in the Irani Cup. Nabi has been picked in India’s ODI squad for the home series against the West Indies and, due to his involvement in the one-dayers, he will not play in the Irani Cup final for his domestic side.
Auqib’s absence will be a big setback for J&K, as he was their highest wicket-taker in the 2025-26 edition of the Ranji Trophy. Jammu and Kashmir won their first-ever Ranji Trophy title in the 2025–26 season by defeating Karnataka on the basis of a first-innings lead
Rest of India squad: 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.
