The final Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) 2024-25 showdown will take place on December 15 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh (MP) will fight for the title. Shreyas Iyer‘s Mumbai made their only SMAT Final in 2022 and beat Himachal Pradesh. Meanwhile, Rajat Patidar’s MP hasn’t made the final two since the 2010-11 season. As far as form goes, not much can be distinguished between the two teams. Both have lost just 1 match on their way to the final, with MP being on a 5-match winning streak while Mumbai has won seven on the trot.
The clash would be decided by batting, it seems. The two best batters of the league, Ajinkya Rahane and Patidar, would go toe-to-toe not just for the SMAT trophy but also to have a crack at the Indian Premier League (IPL) captaincy.
Ajinkya Rahane eyes KKR captaincy
Rahane has a realistic shot at becoming Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain next season, with Venkatesh Iyer being the only other viable option. His performance in the SMAT so far (432 runs at 61.71 while striking at 169.41) has further strengthened his captaincy contention. Although Rahane isn’t the captain of Mumbai, he’s got leadership experience both internationally and domestically (including the IPL). There was doubt that Rahane would walk into the XI, but given the form he’s in, he’ll likely open for KKR.
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Win SMAT, lead RCB for Rajat Patidar?
Apart from Virat Kohli, who stepped down as Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain after the IPL 2021 season, there aren’t many who can wear the skipper’s hat. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Krunal Pandya, and Jitesh Sharma are the other candidates, but it’s not certain that all of them will walk into the playing XI like Patidar would. He might just be the best T20 batter in India right now (347 runs at 49.57 while striking at 182.63 in SMAT), and giving him RCB captaincy would make sense. If he wins the SMAT 2024-25 title, he has a great chance to lead RCB.
MUM vs MP: SMAT Final Squads
Madhya Pradesh: Arpit Gaud, Harsh Gawli (wk), Subhranshu Senapati, Venkatesh Iyer, Rajat Patidar (c), Harpreet Singh Bhatia, Tripuresh Singh, Rahul Batham, Kumar Kartikeya, Avesh Khan, Shivam Shukla, Kamal Tripathi, Kulwant Khejroliya, Aniket Verma, Vikas Sharma, Pankaj Chothmal Sharma, Arshad Khan, Abhishek Pathak
Mumbai: Prithvi Shaw, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Suryansh Shedge, Shardul Thakur, Hardik Tamore (wk), Tanush Kotian, Mohit Avasthi, Atharva Ankolekar, Siddhesh Lad, Royston Dias, Jay Gokul Bista, Sairaj Patil, Shams Mulani, Akash Anand, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Himanshu Singh, M Juned Khan
