On Thursday, Sanju Samson was appointed as the Kerala captain for the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament, which is scheduled to be held from October 16 to November 6 across various venues. Kerala will open their Group B campaign in the tournament in Mumbai with a match against Himachal Pradesh. In the group, Kerala and HP will compete along with Sikkim, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Odisha, Services, and Chandigarh. Samson will be keen to underline his prowess with some strident outings in the Mushtaq Ali Trophy that will keep him in the range of national selectors.

Kerala will have added strength this time in the form of all-rounder Shreyas Gopal, who moved in from Karnataka last month. The leg-spinner could be leading the spin attack of Kerala's in the company of veteran spinner Jalaj Saxena, who was the highest wicket-taker in the last Ranji Trophy season with 50 scalps.

The vice captain of the side is promising Rohan Kunnummal, while former Tamil Nadu cricketer M Venkataramana is the head coach of Kerala this season.

Kerala squad: Sanju Samson (captain, wk), Rohan Kunnummal (vice-captain), Shreyas Gopal, Jalaj Saxena, Sachin Baby, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Vishnu Vinod, Abdul Basit, Sijomon Joseph, Vysakh Chandran, Basil Thampi, KM Asif, Vinod Kumar, Manu Krishnan, Varun Nayanar, M. Ajnas, P.K. Mithun, Salman Nissar