The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026 begins on Saturday, 14 November, with 38 teams in India’s domestic Twenty20 competition. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026 squads have been announced for all sides, with 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi set to captain Bihar and Suryakumar Yadav named captain of Mumbai. The tournament is the 19th edition of the competition, and the final is scheduled for 6 December. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026 squads were announced this week.
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026 squads: Sooryavanshi to lead Bihar
Sooryavanshi will captain Bihar in their opening two matches, against Saurashtra on 14 November and Railways on 16 November, with both fixtures in Indore. It will be his first official captaincy assignment after he served as Bihar’s vice-captain last season, when he became the youngest centurion in the tournament’s history. Suraj Kashyap has been named vice-captain. The captaincy is limited to the first two matches because Sooryavanshi is set to join the India A squad for the Men’s Rising Stars Asia Cup after them.
The Bihar squad is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Suraj Kashyap, Alok Kumar, Ayush Loharuka, Altamash Ashraf, Param Kumar Singh, Anmol Kumar, Ritwik Raj, Mayank Kumar, Raghvendra Pratap, Ashish Kumar, Vasudev Pratap Singh, Mohammad Izhar, Amod Yadav, Prashant Singh, Nawaz Khan and Himanshu Singh. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026 squads for Bihar were finalised after selection trials held between 4 and 6 November.
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026 squads: Suryakumar leads Mumbai
Suryakumar Yadav will captain Mumbai in the tournament, the Mumbai Cricket Association announced on Monday, 9 November. His 16-man squad is Suryakumar Yadav, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Divyansh Saxena, Suved Parkar, Musheer Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Sairaj Patil, Shivam Dube, Atharva Ankolekar, Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Shams Mulani, Maxwell Swaminathan, Mohit Avasthi, Sylvester D’Souza and Hardik Tamore. Mumbai begin their campaign against Hyderabad in Kolkata on 14 November.
Suryakumar was stripped of the India Twenty20 international captaincy earlier this year, and his last appearance in competitive cricket came in the Indian Premier League in 2026. He led India to Twenty20 World Cup glory earlier this year. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026 squads put Mumbai in Group D, where the other teams are Gujarat, Goa, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Uttarakhand. Shardul Thakur returns to the Mumbai side after missing the first leg of the Ranji Trophy with a finger injury.
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026 squads: other names to watch
Sanju Samson will lead Keralam, who begin their campaign against Madhya Pradesh in New Chandigarh on 14 November. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026 squads also include Mohammed Shami in Bengal’s squad. Delhi have picked Ishant Sharma, Harshit Rana and Mayank Yadav under captain Ayush Badoni. Karnataka have brought back Manish Pandey after two years, with Ravichandran Smaran as captain, and Tamil Nadu have named T Natarajan and Varun Chakravarthy in their squad. Madhya Pradesh will be led by Rajat Patidar. Sushant Mishra, the joint-highest wicket-taker last season, will represent defending champions Jharkhand. Riyan Parag has not been named in Assam’s squad as he continues his recovery from shoulder surgery.
Mumbai’s first match is against Hyderabad in Kolkata on 14 November, the opening day of the tournament. Bihar play Saurashtra the same day in Indore, and Keralam begin against Madhya Pradesh in New Chandigarh. The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2026 squads take the field from Saturday, 14 November.
The format splits 32 teams into the Elite division, in four groups of eight, with six teams in the Plate division. The Plate tournament runs separately and 16 matches will determine the winner. The group stage runs from 14 to 26 November, and the top two teams from each Elite group go through to the Super League, played from 30 November to 4 December. The top team from each Super League group qualifies for the final on 6 December. Jharkhand enter the tournament as defending champions, having beaten Haryana in the final at the MCA Stadium in Pune.