India's domestic season officially gets underway with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tomorrow. Some established names will look to get back to full-fledged T20 action while some players will aim to prove themselves and possibly grab a lucrative IPL deal.
Let us have an overview of the 9 matches scheduled on Day 1:
1) Karnataka vs Jammu and Kashmir
The defending champions, Karnataka will be led by the experienced Karun Nair. The in-form Devdutt Padikkal will open the batting. They have two good all-rounders in Shreyas Gopal and Krishnappa Gowtham. Abhimanyu Mithun will lead the bowling attack. They will miss the services of Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul.
Jammu and Kashmir will be captained by Parvez Rasool. The batting line-up will be spearheaded by Shubham Khajuria and Shubham Pundir. Umar Nazir Mir and Ram Dayal will be their main bowlers. J&K won four out of six matches in last year's edition.
2) Baroda vs Uttarakhand
Yusuf Pathan is not part of the Baroda squad for the first time in his career. They will be served well by Krunal Pandya and wicket-keeper, Kedar Devdhar. Baroda beat Uttarakhand last year by 33 runs. Deepak Hooda withdrew his name from the Baroda team after accusing Krunal of abusing him.
Experienced first-class player, Iqbal Abdullah will lead Uttarakhand. Ashish Chaudhary and Saurabh Rawat will be their key batsmen.
3) Chhattisgarh vs Himachal Pradesh
Harpreet Singh will be the captain of the Chhattisgarh outfit. The core bowlers will be Veer Pratap Singh, Shahnawaz Hussain and Shubham Singh.
Prashant Chopra will be the anchor for Himachal. RI Thakur will be the captain and all-rounder Rishi Dhawan will play a crucial role.
4) Gujarat vs Maharashtra
Axar Patel will lead Gujarat. He will establish a potent partnership with the experienced Piyush Chawla. Priyank Panchal can score runs heavily for the side.
Maharashtra will be captained by Rahul Tripathi. They have two solid batsmen in Ruturaj Gaikwad and Kedar Jadhav.
5) Jharkhand vs Tamil Nadu
Ishan Kishan who is coming off a fine season in the IPL will captain Jharkhand. He will be supported ably by Virat Singh and the dashing Saurabh Tiwary. Varun Aaron and Shahbaz Nadeem will spearhead the bowling attack.
Dinesh Karthik leads the Tamil Nadu side that finished runner-up last year. They will miss the services of Abhinav Mukund, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Washington Sundar. Vijay Shankar and N. Jagadeesan will be the mainstay in the middle-order.
6) Odisha vs Bengal
Odisha will be captained by Subhranshu Senapati. Biplab Samantray will look to continue his good form from the last edition. Pappu Roy and Govinda Poddar are capable to make the needed breakthroughs.
Bengal will be led by Anustup Majumdar. They will miss Wriddhiman Saha who is out on national duty in the Australia test series. Manoj Tiwary and Shreevats Goswami will be the impact players. Ishan Porel's raw pace can trouble Odisha's batsmen.
7) Railways vs Tripura
Karn Sharma will lead the Railways team. They won 4 matches and lost 3 last year. Harsh Tyagi is a game-changing left-arm spinner. Pratham Singh and Mrunal Devdhar will be their main batsmen.
Tripura has a fairly inexperienced squad. They will be captained by Manisankar Murasingh. They had a forgettable campaign last year winning only 1 match and losing 5. Udiyan Bose will be their main batsman.
8) Punjab vs Uttar Pradesh
Led by the experienced Mandeep Singh, Punjab has a pace-heavy attack with the likes of Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma, and Barinder Sran. All-rounder Gurkeerat Singh Mann is expected to play an important role.
Uttar Pradesh is captained by Priyam Garg. India internationals, Suresh Raina and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be the centre of attention. They have game-changing bowlers in Ankit Rajpoot and Shivam Mavi.
9) Assam vs Hyderabad
Rishav Das leads the Assam squad. They lost 6 matches last season and won only one clash. Pallavkumar Das will be their key batsman. All-rounder Riyan Parag will look to make a big impact.
Hyderabad won 4 and lost 3 matches last year. They will be captained by Tanmay Agarwal who has scored more than 300 runs in the tournament. Bavanaka Sandeep and Chama V Milind will be their impact players.
The future of Indian cricket is right here and the selectors will be keenly watching the matches to expand the available talent pool.
Featured Image Credits - InsideSport
