Uttar Pradesh’s 18-member squad for the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy has again exposed the gap between the UPCA’s slogan of nurturing players and its selection reality. Despite the UPT20 League being promoted as the state’s talent pipeline, some of its leading performers have not made it to the squad for the tournament starting in Mumbai on November 14.
The omission of players who made a mark in UPT20 has raised questions about the Praveen Kumar-headed senior men’s selection panel. The league was meant to identify and reward T20-ready cricketers, yet the squad suggests that performances in the league may again have carried limited weight in the selection room.
Karan Sharma, who has been named the captain, is an exception. He was the leading batter in UPT20 League 2026 with 361 runs, having also topped the league batting charts with 519 runs in 2025 and 606 in 2023.
Sameer Rizvi, Swastik Chikara, Divyansh Joshi, Abhishek Goswami and Prashant Veer were among the league’s prominent run-scorers, while Zeeshan Ansari led the bowling charts with 25 wickets. All are in the 18-man squad, which suggests the selectors have not entirely ignored the league.
However, pacer Abhinandan Singh, who took 24 wickets, has been left out while Arnav Baliyan,
{{/usCountry}}However, pacer Abhinandan Singh, who took 24 wickets, has been left out while Arnav Baliyan,
{{/usCountry}}who scored just 53 runs in seven league matches this season with 25 being his highest, is part of the side.
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“Unless we have a transparent system in the UPCA, we aren’t going to have a winning team,” said a selection panel member, who did not wish to be identified.
UPCA secretary, Prem Manohar Gupta, though defended the selection process, saying they were made on merit. “As per my knowledge our selectors have picked a good side which is capable of winning the title,” he said.
Uttar Pradesh knows what a balanced T20 side can achieve. In the 2015-16 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final at Wankhede, UP beat Baroda by 38 runs to win its maiden title. That triumph was built on clarity of roles and match-winning contributors. Prashant Gupta made 49, captain Suresh Raina scored an unbeaten 47 off 37 balls, and the bowling unit strangled Baroda to 125/7. Kuldeep Yadav’s 2/12, Piyush Chawla’s control and Ankit Rajpoot’s 3/30 were central to the win. Praveen Kumar was part of that title-winning XI.
The current squad does contain genuine T20 talent. Bhuvneshwar Kumar brings vast experience and death-over skill, Mohsin Khan, Shivam Mavi, Yash Dayal and Kartik Tyagi provide pace depth. Zeeshan Ansari offers a proven wicket-taking spin option.
Rinku Singh, a surefire selection, is unavailable as he is part of the ACC Men’s Asia Cup Rising Stars, to be played in Qatar from November 19.
SQUAD
Karan Sharma (captain), Aryan Juyal, Madhav Kaushik, Siddharth Yadav, Sameer Rizvi, Divyansh Joshi, Arnav Baliyan, Aaradhya Yadav, Prashant Veer, Zeeshan Ansari, Yash Garg, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohsin Khan, Shivam Mavi, Yash Dayal, Kartik Tyagi, Abhishek Goswami and Swastik Chikara.