A gang of domestic performers such as Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw along with a battle-hardened internationals like Ravichandran Ashwin will be eager to add some context to Irani Cup when Rest of India clashes with Ranji Trophy champions Vidarbha. With just three weeks left for the cash-rich Indian Premier League to start, the Irani Cup sticks out like sore thumb as India A’s next big tour starts not before July.

Rest of India players have had good Ranji Trophy season but BCCI’s decision to re-schedule Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy before IPL auctions has taken the sheen away from the prestigious match, which used to serve as trials for India hopefuls in past.

However, youngsters like Shaw, Agarwal, Abhimanyu Easwaran won’t mind a big hundred in front of national selectors as it would ensure a ticket for the A team’s tour of England -- a series happening after 2010. Ravikumar Samarth after a fabulous Deodhar Trophy would like to continue his rich vein of form. Among the bowlers, Navdeep Saini, who is among the fastest bowlers in India right now, would like to make an impression with workhorse like mentality.

Rest of India: Karun Nair (captain), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prithvi Shaw, Ravikumar Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, hanuma Vihari, Kona Bharat (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Anmolpreet Singh, Siddarth Kaul, Ankit Rajpoot, Navdeep Saini, Ait Seth

Vidarbha: Faiz Fazal (captain), Ganesh Satish (vice-captain), R Sanjay, Wasim Jaffer, Apoorv Wankhede, Akshay Wadkar (wicketkeeper), Siddhesh Wath, Aditya Sarvate, Karn Sharma, Akshay Wakhare, Umesh Yadav, Rajneesh Gurbani, Yash Thakur, Aditya Thakare, Atharva Taide.