Not Rajat Patidar, new RCB recruit named as Madhya Pradesh's captain for Vijay Hazare Trophy

Venkatesh Iyer has been announced as Madhya Pradesh's captain for the Vijay Hazare Trophy that is scheduled to commence from December 24. Iyer, who was recently signed by the Royal Challengers Bengaluru for INR 7 crore at the IPL  2026 auction, gave a decent performance for Madhya Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT).

Venkatesh finished the SMAT with a total of 211 runs from 10 matches as the team got eliminated in the Super League and failed to make it to the final. Being handed the captaincy role shows that the team management has faith in Iyer and he will be looking to deliver  up to their expectations in the upcoming domestic tournament.

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The Madhya Pradesh squad also includes Kumar Kartikeya, who featured for the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2025. Other notable players  in the squad are Yash Dubey and Mangesh Yadav, who was also signed by RCB at the IPL 2026 auction for a whopping fee of INR 5.20. The left-arm fast-bowling all-rounder attracted a lot of interest at the auction, but was eventually acquired by the Bengaluru-based franchise. 

Patidar surprisingly absent

Meanwhile, one of the notable omissions from the squad is that of Rajat Patidar. He had been named Madhya Pradesh's captain earlier this year after taking RCB to glory in IPL 2025. He had led the team in both the Ranji Trophy and SMAT, but has now been excluded from the squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. 

Several other India stars to feature

On the other hand, the upcoming edition of the Vijay Hazare Trophy will likely feature several India stars including the likes of Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul and more. Rohit Sharma is also expected to play for Mumbai in the league stage and many  other prominent players are likely to  feature for their respective state teams in the 50-over tournament.

This comes after the BCCI had made it compulsory for contracted players to participate in domestic tournaments unless they are injured or on national duty. This guideline came following India's 3-1 defeat to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar series 2024/25.

Madhya Pradesh's squad for Vijay Hazare Trophy: Venkatesh Iyer (Captain), Harsh Gawli, Himanshu Mantri (WK), Yash Dubey, Shubham Sharma, Harpreet Singh, Rishabh Chauhan, Ritik Tada, Kumar Kartikeya, Saransh Jain, Shivang Kumar, Aryan Pandey, Rahul Batham, Tripuresh Singh, Mangesh Yadav, Madhav Tiwari (subject to fitness).