At the Bengaluru auction on Thursday, Samit Dravid, the son of former India captain and head coach Rahul Dravid, secured his first-ever Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 contract with the Mysuru Warriors, the runners-up from the previous season.
The purchase of Dravid, an 18-year-old all-round player, cost INR 50,000. He was a middle-order batsman and medium-pacer who played for the Karnataka Under-19 squad that won the Cooch Behar Trophy in 2023–24. He also played for the KSCA XI in a three-day match against the Lancashire team that travelled to Alur.
Karun Nair, who was kept as the squad captain, will lead Dravid at Warriors. Along with all-rounders K Gowtham (INR 7.4 lakh) and J Suchith (INR 4.8 lakh), Warriors also acquired fast bowler Prasidh Krishna (INR 1 lakh), who had just had surgery on his left proximal quadriceps tendon.
The most expensive player at the auction, LR Chethan, a wicketkeeper batter who spent last season with the Gulbarga Mystics, signed a contract worth INR 8.2 lakh to join the Bengaluru Blasters. Mayank Agarwal, who was retained together with Suraj Ahuja, Shubhang Hegde, and Mohsin Khan, will serve as the team’s leader. For INR 7.6 lakh, legspinner Shreyas was traded to the Mangaluru Dragons.
Mystics signed Luvnith Sisodia for INR 7.2 lakh and kept Devdutt Padikkal, who was sidelined by injury the previous season, along with Vijaykumar Vyshak. Legspinner KC Cariappa was acquired by the reigning champion Hubli Tigers for INR 4.2 lakh. Manish Pandey will lead them once more, while fast bowler Vidwath Kaverappa will be part of the team.
The Maharaja Trophy season of 2024 is probably scheduled to run from September 15 to October 1, with all games taking place at 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