India’s Mohammed Shami attends a practice session ahead of their second Twenty20 cricket match against England, in Chennai. (AP)
The Cricket Association of Bengal has named a strong Bengal team for their Ranji Trophy opening fixture against Uttarakhand to be played at the Eden Gardens. In the squad to be led by Abhimanyu Easwaran, Bengal have included the pace trio of Mohammed Shami, Akash Deep and Mukesh Kumar in the squad, which will no doubt make the former champions a strong favourite to start the tournament on a wining note.
Since featuring in the Champions Trophy, Shami has fallen out of favour in India’s scheme of things. After being overlooked for the England Test tour where the selectors said he hasn’t played enough first-class matches, last week he was dropped from the white-ball tour to Australia. After featuring in the IPL, Shami played the Duleep Trophy, sending down 34 overs in the match for East Zone and had just one wicket to show.
Apart from Shami, the first couple of rounds will be of huge importance to Akash. The seamer, who came up with an impressive outing in England in the three Tests he played, has been troubled by a back injury in recent weeks. It led to him missing the Duleep Trophy and having undergone rehab at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence, Akash gets an opportunity to press for his inclusion for the upcoming Test series against South Africa in November. With Kolkata set to host the first Test, if Akash is back among the wickets, there is a strong chance that he would be part of the mix in place of Harshit Rana.
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Beyond the two, Mukesh Kumar will also be looking to send a reminder about his presence. The India discard hasn’t completely vanished from the radar, as he was also part of India A team that toured England soon after the IPL. But during the Duleep Trophy, suffered a hamstring injury that cut short his game time.
Apart from the trio who have all played for India, there is also space for Ishan Porel in the Bengal squad. While middle-order batsman Anustup Majumdar was named as the captain of Bengal earlier, he been replaced by Easwaran, who has been a prolific scorer in the domestic circuit. Part of India Test team for the tour of Australia and England, he has been sent back to the domestic circuit without getting a game.
Former India all-rounder Laxmi Ratan Shukla will continue as the head coach of the team.
Placed in Elite Group C, Bengal have Gujarat, Haryana, Services, Railways, Tripura, Uttarakhand, and Assam for company. They will play their opening two rounds at home against Uttarakhand and Gujarat.
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Squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (captain), Abishek Porel (vice-captain/wk), Sudip Kumar Gharami, Anustup Majumdar, Sudip Chatterjee, Sumanta Gupta, Saurabh Kumar Singh, Vishal Bhati, Mohammed Shami, Akash Deep, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Shakir Habib Gandhi (wk), Ishan Porel, Kazi Junaid Saifi, Rahul Prasad, Sumit Mohanta and Vikash Singh.
