Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2020: Kedar Jadhav, Ruturaj Gaikwad in Maharashtra squad, Rahul Tripathi to lead

WRITTEN BY DNA Web Team | Updated: Dec 31, 2020, 10:16 AM IST

Ruturaj Gaikwad and Kedar Jadhav will be the key for Maharashtra if they have to repeat their heroics in the 2019 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy heroics. (Image credit: Twitter)

Maharashtra will have the services of Kedar Jadhav and Ruturaj Gaikwad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy that will begin in January.

Maharashtra have announced the 20-man squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy which will begin on January 7. The side includes India cricketer Kedar Jadhav and Ruturaj Gaikwad, the youngster who overcame coronavirus and impressed for Chennai Super Kings with three fifties in IPL 2020. The Maharashtra team will be led by Rahul Tripathi, who has played for Rising Pune Supergiant and the Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL. Apart from these three players, the rest of the Maharashtra squad is made up of new faces as they aim to make a mark in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament.

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Kedar Jadhav has fallen out of favour with the Indian cricket team after an underwhelming 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup while Ruturaj Gaikwad was one of the stars for Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2020 which was not a good one for Chennai Super Kings. Ruturaj Gaikwad missed the initial matches of the IPL 2020 after he and Deepak Chahar contracted the coronavirus before the start of the tournament. After a poor start, Ruturaj Gaikwad came into his own with magnificent fifties and his knock against Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab ensured that Chennai Super Kings did not finish at the bottom of the table.

New faces

Ruturaj Gaikwad will be hoping to use the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as the springboard for his batting to be noticed ahead of IPL 2021 and the ICC World T20 that is expected to be played in India in 2021. Apart from Ruturaj Gaikwad, the squad also sees Nikhil Naik who was part of the Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2020.

Maharashtra are placed in Elite Group C along with Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Baroda and Uttarakhand. All their league stage matches will be played in Vadodara. Maharashtra have won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy once and that was 11 years ago in 2009 when the defeated Hyderabad in the final. Karnataka have won the last two editions of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, beating Maharashtra in 2019 and Tamil Nadu by one run in 2020.

Squad: Rahul Tripathi (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Naushad Shaikh, Kedar Jadhav, Ranjeet Nikam, Azim Kazi, Nikhil Naik (wicketkeeper), Vishant More (wicketkeeper), Satyajeet Bachhav, Taranjeet Singh Dhillon, Shamshuzma Kazi, Pradeep Dadhe, Mukesh Choudhary, Manoj Ingle, Divyang Hingankar, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Jagdish Zope, Swapnil Gugale, Dhanraj Pardeshi, Sunny Pandit.