Samit Dravid, son of former India head coach and captain Rahul Dravid, was signed by Mysuru Warriors during the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 player auction on Thursday. The last season's runner-up, Mysuru Warriors, secured the services of Samit, a middle-order batsman and seamer, for Rs 50,000. Samit is an 18-year-old all-rounder, he can bowl medium pace and can bat in the battle order. He was also part of the Karnataka Under-19 team that won the 2023-24 Cooch Behar Trophy. He also represented Karnataka State Cricket Association XI in a three-day game against the visiting Lancashire side in Alur.
Samit will be under the leadership of Karun Nair at the Mysuru Warriors, who was retained as a captain by the team. The Mysuru team also picked up allrounders like K Gowtham and J Suchith for Rs 7.4 lakh and Rs 4.8 lakh respectively. Pacer Prasidh Krisna, who recently underwent surgery on his left proximal quadriceps tendon, was sold for Rs 1 lakh.
The most expensive player at the auction was the wicketkeeper, batter LR Chethan, who represented the Gulbarga Mystics last season. He joined the Bengaluru Blasters for Rs 8.2 Lakh. Mayank Agarwal will be leading the Bengaluru Blasters, who was retained by the team alongside Suraj Ahuja, Shubhang Hedge and Mohsin Khan. Leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal was sold to Mangaluru Dragons for Rs 7.6 lakh.
The Mystics retained Devdutt Padikkal, who missed the last season dur to an injury. Vijaykumar Vyshakh was also retained and the Mystics acquired the services of Luvnith Sisodia for Rs 7.2 lakh. The defending champions Hubli Tigers secured the services of KC Cariappa for Rs 4.2 lakh. The Tigers will be led by Manish Pandey and also have fast bowler Viswath Kaverappa in their ranks.
Mysore Warriors: Karun Nair, Karthik CA, Manoj Bhandage, Karthik S U, Suchith J, Gowtham K, Vidyadhar Patil, Venkatesh M, Harshil Dharmani, Goutham Mishra, Dhanush Gowda, Samit Dravid, Deepak Devadiga, Sumit Kumar, Smayan Srivastava, Jasper EJ, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Sarfaraz Ashraf
The 2024 season of the Maharaja Trophy is likely to be held from September 15 to October 1 with all the matches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
