In a major development, 26-year-old talented Indian batsman Prithvi Shaw is all set to replace star batsman Ruturaj Gaikwad as the captain of Team Maharashtra.
Prithvi Shaw will replace Ruturaj Gaikwad as captain and will lead Team Maharashtra in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025-26 league stage stage.
Ruturaj Gaikwad will not play for Maharashtra
Gaikwad, who leads Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), is among those unfortunate cricketers in India who do not get consistent opportunities despite performing well due to India’s strong line-up across all formats.
He has played 23 T20I and 6 ODI matches for the India national cricket team. His last appearance in ODI cricket came on December 19, 2023, at Gkebaraha, and his last T20I innings was against Zimbabwe on July 13, 2024, at Harare.
Despite being out of the setup, Ruturaj Gaikwad never stopped fighting, and now he has been rewarded by the Ajit Agarkar-led Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee.
He has been named in India’s ODI squad for the home series against the South Africa national cricket team and will compete with Yashasvi Jaiswal for a place at the top of the order.
Ruturaj Gaikwad’s selection comes on the back of his heroics for India A in the recently concluded three-match ODI series against South Africa A, where he finished as the leading run-scorer.
The talented right-handed batsman scored 210 runs in three innings, including a brilliant 117 off 129 balls in the opening match and also won the Player of the Series award.
Prithvi Shaw becomes captain in place of Ruturaj Gaikwad
The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025-26 will begin on November 26 and will be contested by a three-match ODI series between India and South Africa, which will be played on November 30, December 3 and December 6.
With Ruturaj Gaikwad out of the team, the Maharashtra selection committee has decided to hand over the leadership responsibility to Prithvi Shaw, who is set to lead Maharashtra in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy league stage.
Notably, when Maharashtra announced the 16-member squad for the competition on Friday, Ruturaj Gaikwad was initially named captain, and no vice-captain was named.
“On Sunday, multiple sources in the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) confirmed that Shaw will be handed the captaincy following Gaikwad’s departure. The selectors and team management have already briefed Shaw about taking over the leadership if needed and the opening batsman has been advised to be ready for the role,” Sportstar reported.
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Updated Maharashtra Squad:
Prithvi Shaw (captain), Arshin Kulkarni, Rahul Tripathi, Azim Kazi, Nikhil Naik (wk), Ramakrishna Ghosh, Vicky Ostwal, Tanay Sanghvi, Mukesh Chaudhary, Prashant Solanki, Mandar Bhandari (wk), Jalaj Saxena, Rajvardhan Hungergekar, Yogesh Dongre, Ranjit Nikam.
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