Great to see senior members of Indian team play in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, says Jay Shah

New Delhi(The Uttam Hindu): Jay Shah, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said he was delighted by the sight of senior members of the men’s team playing in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and imparting tons of wisdom to young and emerging cricketers in their state teams.

“Great to see high competition and intensity in our premier domestic T20 competition, the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy with senior members of the Indian Cricket Team participating and playing along side the future generation, sharing insights and learnings from their international careers.”

“It's a beautiful sight to see this side of the Indian domestic circuit where knowledge sharing and learning takes up a primary role, churning out the best in our players! @BCCIdomestic,” wrote Shah on his 'X' account.

The 17th edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy has seen all the 38 senior men’s state teams play in the tournament which began on November 23. Punjab are in the competition as defending champions, after winning last year’s tournament. Eight teams have been divided into three groups, while seven teams have been placed in two groups each.

As of now, Rajkot, Vishakhapatnam (as well as Vizianagaram), Hyderabad, Indore, and Mumbai are the venues for the league stage, following which the knockout rounds will be held in Bengaluru and Alur.

With Test team players in Australia for the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, it means that the creme de la creme of the Indian men’s team are having the window to turn out for their state teams in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, adding an element of competitiveness and intensity to the tournament.

The competition has seen players like Mohammed Shami, Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Tilak Varma, Arshdeep Singh, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ramandeep Singh, Krunal Pandya, Ishan Kishan, Abhishek Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Rajat Patidar, Venkatesh Iyer and Avesh Khan feature for their respective state teams till now.