Prithvi Shaw has been appointed the captain of the Maharashtra cricket team for its first game of the Ranji Trophy season against Services.
Shaw, who joined Maharashtra before the 2025-26 season wll lead the squad, which has the likes of Ankeet Bawane, Vicky Ostwal, Mukesh Choudhary and Rajvardhan Hangargekar among others. Shaw will lead the team in Ruturaj Gaikwad’s absence. Ruturaj will be on India A duties during the first Ranji game of the season and will miss the fixture. The right-handed batter will return as the captain from Maharashtra’s second game of the season against Rajasthan.
Ruturaj will be leading India A in the three-match unofficial ODI series against Australia A. The three games are scheduled to be played on October 6, 9 and 11. Devdutt Padikkal will assist Ruturaj in the series.
Ruturaj earned his maiden Test call-up for the away series against West Indies in 2023. Yashasvi Jaiswal was picked ahead of him in the playing XI and he made his debut in the series opener.
Jaiswal has been a regular in the playing XI for more than three years while Ruturaj was droped from the Test team. He isn’t a regular member of the white-ball teams.
made his ODI comeback for the recently concluded series against West Indies in the absence of Shreyas Iyer. He looks all but set to lose his spot to Iyer when the vice-captain makes his return.
Talking of Shaw, he hasn’t played an international match since 2021. The opening batter made his T20I comeback for the home series against New Zealand early in 2023 but he stayed on the bench. Shaw, who kicked off his Test career with a century, has played 5 Tests, 6 ODIs and 1 T20I.
Squad:
Prithvi Shaw (Captain), Sachin Dhas, Digvijay Patil, Ankeet Bawane, Harshal Kate, Siddhesh Veer, Saurabh Navale, Vicky Ostwal, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Mukesh Choudhary, Pradeep Dadhe, Tanay Sanghvi, Vaibhav Darkunde, Hitesh Walunj, Rishikesh Sonawane, Atharva Dharmadhikari.