Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey headline KSCA’s Maharaja Trophy draft picks

Six teams will feature in the tournament, which begins on August 7.

Coaches (from left) T. Nasiruddin, Mansur Ali Khan, P.V. Shashikanth, Stuart Binny, Nikhil Haldipur, and Deepak Chougule at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. | Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K

Mayank Agarwal will be part of Kalyani Bengaluru Blasters and Manish Pandey will feature for Gulbarga Mystics in the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 tournament, which is set to begin in Mysuru on August 7.  

At the player draft held here on Saturday, six sets of a head coach, assistant coach and a selector each — handpicked by the KSCA — were responsible for assembling the six outfits. Mysore Warriors, to be coached by P.V. Shashikanth, went first and picked Karun Nair, raising more than a few eyebrows. The batter is not necessarily seen as a T20 specialist and the onus will be on him to prove otherwise.

It also emerged that Abhimanyu Mithun will turn out for Hubli Tigers, K. Gowtham for Shivamogga Strikers and Abhinav Manohar for Mangalore United. Devdutt Padikkal will team-up with Pandey at Gulbarga. 

Of the 13 players in Pool A, comprising India and IPL players, ‘mystery spinner’ Shivil Kaushik and left-arm tweaker K.P. Appanna did not find takers. 

Team composition:

Kalyani Bengaluru Blasters: Mayank Agarwal, Suchith J, Anirudha Joshi, Pradeep T, Kranthi Kumar, Chetan LR, Aneesh KV, Kumar LR, Rakshith S, Rishi Bopanna, Santok Singh, Suraj Ahuja (WK), P Gurbax Arya, Lochan Gowda, Ronit More, Shaun Tristan Joseph, Kush Marate, Tanay Walmik; Coach: T. Nasiruddin; Asst coach: K.B. Pavan; Selector: Ragotham Navli. 

Hubli Tigers: Abhimanyu Mithun, Luvnith Sisodia, V. Koushik, Liyan Khan, M.G. Naveen; Anand Doddamani, B.U. Shivkumar, Tushar Singh, Akshan Rao, Zahoor Farooqi, Rohan Naveen, Saurav Srivastav, Sagar Solanki, Gowtham Sagar, Roshan Ashwathiah, Rahul Singh Rawat, Shishir Bhawane, Sharan Goud; Coach: Deepak Chougule; Asst coach: Raju Bhatkal; Selector: Anand Katti. 

Gulbarga Mystics: Manish Pandey, Devdutt Padikkal, C.A. Karthik, Manoj Bhandage, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kruthik Krishna, Abhilash Shetty, Kushaal M. Wadhwani, Pranav Bhatia, K.L. Shrijith, Ritesh Bhatkal, B.A. Mohit, Rohan Patil, Dhanush Gowda, Mohammed Aqib Jawad, Shreesha Achar, Jeshwanth Acharya, Aaron Christie; Coach: Mansur Ali Khan; Asst coach: Rajashekar Shanbal; Selector: V. Santosh.  

Mangalore United: Abhinav Manohar, R. Samarth, V. Vyshak, Amit Verma, M. Venkatesh, Aneeshwar Gautam, Sujay Sateri, A.C. Rohith Kumar, Macneil Noronha, H.S. Sharath, K. Shashi Kumar, S.J. Nikin Jose, Raghuveer Pavalur, S. Amogh, N.A. Chinmay, Aditya Somanna, Yashovardhan Parantap, Dheeraj J. Gowda; Coach: Stuart Binny; Asst coach: C. Raghavendra; Selector: M.V. Prasanth. 

Shivamogga Strikers: K. Gowtham, K.C. Cariappa, Rohan Kadam, K.V. Siddharth, M.B. Darshan, Stalin Hoover, D. Avinash, R. Smaran, B.R. Sharath, Rajvir Wadhwa, Rajendra Danganavar, Utham Aiyappa, S. Chaitanya, B.M. Shreyas, K.S. Devaiah, Vinay Sagar, S.P. Shreyas, S. Punith; Coach: Nikhil Haldipur; Asst coach: Aditya Sagar; Selector: A.R. Mahesh. 

Mysore Warriors: Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal, Shubhang Hegde, Pavan Deshpande, Vidyadhar Patil, Nihal Ullal, Prateek Jain, Lochan Appanna, G.S. Chiranjeevi, Naga Bharath, Bharath Duri, S. Shivraj, Monish Reddy, T.N. Varun Rao, Rahul Prasanna, Nitin Bhille, Aditya Goyal, Abhishek Ahlawat; Coach: P.V. Shashikanth; Asst coach: S.L. Akshay; Selector: K.L. Ashwath.