In a huge turn of events, the 26-year-old skilled Indian batsman Prithvi Shaw is going to take the place of Ruturaj Gaikwad, the main batter, as the captain of Team Maharashtra.
Leading the Team Maharashtra by Prithvi Shaw will be the outcome of Ruturaj Gaikwad’s captaincy. He will be the lead for Team Maharashtra in the first phase of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025-26 league stage.
Ruturaj Gaikwad will be unavailable for Maharashtra
Ruturaj Gaikwad, who captains the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), is one of the unfortunate cricketers in India who, despite his excellent performances, does not get consistent chances because of the dense batting line-ups in all formats of the game.
He has represented the India National Cricket Team in 23 T20Is and 6 ODIs. His last ODI match was on December 19, 2023, in Gqeberha, and the last time he played a T20I was against Zimbabwe in Harare on July 13, 2024.
Ruturaj Gaikwad always been out of the setup but kept grinding and now he has been rewarded with a place in the mix by the Ajit Agarkar-led Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selection committee.
He has been appointed to India’s ODI squad for the home series against the South Africa National Cricket Team and will contend with Yashasvi Jaiswal for a position in the top order
Ruturaj Gaikwad’s selection is justified by his performance in Malaysia A in the latest three-match One-Day series against South Africa A, where he was the top scorer.
The gifted batsman made 210 runs in total, starting the series with an incredible 117 runs off 129 deliveries and getting the Player of the Series award too.
Prithvi Shaw to be the new captain replacing Ruturaj Gaikwad
The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025-26 will begin on November 26, which will coincide with the India-South Africa three-match ODI series scheduled for November 30, December 3, and December 6.
As a result of Ruturaj Gaikwad’s departure, the Maharashtra selection committee has chosen Prithvi Shaw- the current captain of the Maharashtra team in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy’s league stage- to take on the role of the new leader.
It is important to mention that when the Maharashtra team for the competition was declared on Friday, Ruturaj Gaikwad was initially appointed captain, and no vice-captain was declared.
“The very next day, several people from the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) who were in the know confirmed that Shaw would take up the captaincy as soon as Gaikwad left. The selectors and the team management had already informed Shaw about the possibility of his leading the team and had even advised the opener to be ready for the role,” said the report in Sportstar.
Maharashtra Squad:
Prithvi Shaw (C), Arshin Kulkarni, Rahul Tripathi, Azim Kazi, Nikhil Naik (WK), Ramakrishna Ghosh, Vicky Ostwal, Tanay Sanghvi, Mukesh Choudhary, Prashant Solanki, Mandar Bhandari (WK), Jalaj Saxena, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Yogesh Dongare, Ranjit Nikam