According to various reports, the upcoming Irani Cup 2023 fixture between last season’s Ranji Trophy champions Madhya Pradesh and the Rest of India will likely be a pink ball match in a day/night format, know the schedule, date and squad
The upcoming fixture will be the first time that the Irani Cup match takes place in a day/night format.
Irani Cup 2023 Madhya Pradesh vs Rest of India schedule, date, venue, squad players list
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The BCCI has previously held a few Duleep Trophy Games under lights with the pink ball but never in the Irani Cup.
The Irani Cup
The Irani Cup or Irani Trophy is officially known as the Mastercard Irani Trophy due to sponsorship reasons. The Board of Control for Cricket in India organizes this first-class cricket tournament each year. The competition features the winners of the Ranji Trophy against the Rest of India cricket team.
Irani Cup fixture pink ball match in day/night format
Besides the above stated pink ball match in day/night format, the Irani Cup fixture between Madhya Pradesh and the Rest of India will be relocated to Gwalior instead of Indore. The match will take place at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium.
Interestingly, this is also the same stadium, which hosted the only day/night Ranji Trophy final between Delhi and Mumbai way back in 1996. Moreover, the dates for the annual domestic match will be shifted.
The match was earlier supposed to be played out from March 1-5, at the Holkar stadium in Indore. However, the new venue is set to host the relocated third Test between India and Australia on the same dates.
Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association CEO Rohit D Pandit stated:
We had last night requested the BCCI to shift the Irani cup match to Gwalior.We are waiting to hear from the Board on this”.
So far, the squad members for the rest of India squad haven’t been announced ahead of the game. The upcoming match is also the second Irani Cup game of the season. The first match took place in Rajkot on October 14, between the 2020 Ranji Champions Saurashtra and Rest of India.
Mayank Agarwal is competing with Abhimanyu Easwaran for the Rest of India captaincy with both Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul being contemplated to be a part of the Rest of India squad.
“This constant criticism must have shaken Rahul’s confidence. It will be a good idea to allow him to play the last domestic game of the season — the Irani Cup — against MP, where he can face a bowler of Avesh Khan’s quality.
“Getting some runs will boost his confidence, and he can join the squad for the final Test in Ahmedabad, post the Irani Trophy. That would have been ideal, but I don’t think Dravid will fancy that idea,” a former national selector privy to Dravid’s coaching said.
Madhya Pradesh team is like this
Himanshu Mantri, Yash Dubey, Rajat Patidar, Shubham Sharma, Venkatesh Iyer, Akshat Raghuvanshi, Aman Solanki, Harsh Gawli, Saransh Jain, Mihir Hirwani, Kumar Kartikeya, Avesh Khan, Gaurav Yadav, Anubhav Agarwal, Ankit Kushwaha.
The MP team will report at Hotel Radisson and will participate in the practice session at Captain Roop Singh Stadium under the guidance of coach Chandrakant Pandit and their practice session will continue till February 28.
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