Samit Dravid gets his first Maharaja Trophy T20 contract

NewsThe son of former India captain and coach is playing a state’s T20 league for the first time

Karun Nair will lead Mysuru Warriors, last year’s runner-up  •  Maharaja T20

Samit Dravid, son of former India captain and head coach Rahul Dravid, has bagged his maiden Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 contract with last season’s runner-up Mysuru Warriors at the auction in Bengaluru on Thursday.

Dravid, an 18-year old allrounder, was bought at a price of INR 50,000. A medium-pacer and middle-order batter, he was part of the Karnataka Under-19 team that won the 2023-24 Cooch Behar Trophy, and also represented KSCA XI in a three-day game against the visiting Lancashire side in Alur

At Warriors, Dravid will be led by Karun Nair, who was retained as captain by the team. Warriors also picked up allrounders K Gowtham for INR 7.4 lakh and J Suchith for INR 4.8 lakh, while fast bowler Prasidh Krishna, who recently underwent surgery on his left proximal quadriceps tendon, went for INR 1 lakh.

Wicketkeeper batter LR Chethan, who played for Gulbarga Mystics last season, was the most expensive player at the auction, joining Bengaluru Blasters at a price of INR 8.2 lakh. Blasters will be led by Mayank Agarwal, who was retained along with Suraj Ahuja, Shubhang Hegde, and Mohsin Khan. Legspinner Shreyas went to Mangaluru Dragons for INR 7.6 lakh.

Mystics retained Devdutt Padikkal, who missed the previous season due to injury, along with Vijaykumar Vyshak and acquired the services of Luvnith Sisodia for INR 7.2 lakh. Defending champions Hubli Tigers secured legspinner KC Cariappa for INR 4.2 lakh. They will once again be led by Manish Pandey and also have fast bowler Vidwath Kaverappa in their ranks.

The 2024 season of the Maharaja Trophy is likely to be held from September 15 to October 1 with all the matches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Maharaja Trophy squads

Hubli Tigers: Manish Pandey, Shrijith KL, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Manvanth Kumar L, Cariappa KC, Mohammed Taha, Thippa Reddy, Karthikeya KP, Kumar LR, Aadarsh Prajwal, Kruthik Krishna, Aneeshwar Gautam, Madhav Prakash Bajaj, Shreesha S Acahar, Daman Deep Singh, Mitrakant Yadav, Nishchith Pai, Rishi Bopanna

Mysore Warriors: Karun Nair, Karthik CA, Manoj Bhandage, Karthik S U, Suchith J, Gowtham K, Vidyadhar Patil, Venkatesh M, Harshil Dharmani, Goutham Mishra, Dhanush Gowda, Samit Dravid, Deepak Devadiga, Sumit Kumar, Smayan Srivastava, Jasper EJ, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Sarfaraz Ashraf

Shivamogga Lions: Abhinav Manohar, Nihal Ullal, Koushik V, Shivaraj S, Pradeep T, Hardik Raj, Dhruv Prabhakar, Anand Doddamani, Rajvir Wadhwa, Avinash D, Dheeraj Mohan, Bharath Dhuri, Aadithya Vishwa Karma, Aditya Mani, Rohit K, Rohan Naveen, Sharath HS, Mohith BA

Gulbarga Mystics: Devdutt Padikkal, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Smaran R, Aneesh KV, Pravin Dubey, Luvnith Sisodia, Sharath BR, Aaditya Nair, Monish Reddy, Sharan Goud, Yashovardhan Parantap, Nathan Dmello Joachim, Faizan Riaz, Ritesh Bhatkal, Wahid Faizan Khan, Abhishek Prabhakar, Prithvi Shekhawat, Shimon Luiz

Bengaluru Blasters: Shubhang Hegde, Mayank Agarwal, Mohsin Khan, Suraj Ahuja, Anirudha Joshi, Naveen MG, Prateek Jain, Chethan LR, Melu Kranthi Kumar, Santokh Singh, Aditya Goyal, Rakshith S, Varun Rao TN, Niranjan Naik, Lavish Kaushal, Varun Kumar HC, Shikhar Shetty, Bheem Rao Navale

Mangaluru Dragons: Rohan Patil, Paras Gurbax Arya, Siddharth KV, Nikin Jose, Shreyas Gopal, Dheeraj J Gowda, Darshan MB, Macneil Hadley Noronha, Tushar Singh, Lankesh KS, Samarth Nagaraj, Sankalp SS, Abhilash Shetty, Nischith Rao, Lochan S Gowda, Pranav Bhatia, Sanjay Ashwin, Sagar Solanki