The 2026-27 Irani Cup gets underway on October 1 at Srinagar's Sher-e-Kashmir Stadium, where Jammu and Kashmir — champions of the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy — host a Rest of India side captained by Rishabh Pant in the five-day match's traditional one-off format, running through October 5. It is the first time the ground has hosted top-flight Indian cricket in nearly four decades, giving the fixture significance well beyond its usual place on the domestic calendar.
Pant's presence is the headline story for Rest of India. He has not played since India's Test tour of Sri Lanka over a month ago, after suffering a right-sided internal oblique muscle tear that ruled him out of India's recent white-ball assignments, including the ongoing ODI series against West Indies. Having spent a three-week break on rehabilitation at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, Pant arrives in Srinagar looking to use the Irani Cup to rebuild match fitness and form with the gloves and bat, rather than carrying any selection pressure into the game.
Fast bowler Akash Deep is the other closely watched name in the Rest of India squad, returning from an extended injury lay-off. India's team management is understood to be keen on having him available for the two-match Test leg of India's forthcoming tour of New Zealand, which runs from October 22 to December 1 as part of a 12-match, multi-format series marking 100 years of cricketing ties between the two countries. A clean, wicket-taking outing in Srinagar would strengthen his case considerably.
Rest of India go in with Pant as captain and Sarfaraz Khan as vice-captain, alongside Sanat Sangwan, Shikhar Mohan, Sudip Gharami, Smaran Ravichandran, Manav Suthar, Saransh Jain, Akash Deep, Mukesh Kumar, Mukesh Choudhary, Aryan Juyal, Aryan Pandey, Anukul Roy and Ayush Doseja. Jammu and Kashmir, under Paras Dogra, field a squad built around their Ranji-winning core: Shubham Khajuria, Shubham Pundir, Yawer Hassan, Kanhaiya Wadhawan, Abdul Samad, Abid Mushtaq, Umran Malik, Umar Nazir Mir, Qamran Iqbal, Sunil Kumar, Vanshaj Sharma, Lone Nasir Muzaffar, Sahil Lotra, Waseem Bashir and Kawalpreet Singh.
For Jammu and Kashmir's cricket set-up, simply hosting the match is as significant as how it plays out — a reward for the state association after the team's maiden Ranji Trophy title, and a chance to show Srinagar can stage a high-profile red-ball fixture again after such a long gap. For Rest of India, the result carries far less weight than individual form: with Test and white-ball selection conversations already underway ahead of the New Zealand tour, this match is primarily a proving ground for players like Pant and Akash Deep rather than a result either side will be judged on.
Scores from Srinagar are available through the domestic season on SportGod's live matches page, with more domestic cricket coverage on SportGod's blog and AI-powered previews on SportGod's predictions page.
Squad details, venue history and player fitness context are verified against same-day and freshly re-checked reporting, current as of October 1, 2026.
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