Suresh Raina to lead Uttar Pradesh in Ranji Trophy 1
Suresh Raina

The Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (U.P.C.A.) announced their squad for the first two games of the upcoming Ranji trophy season. The discarded Indian batsman Suresh Raina has been appointed as the captain of the team for the first two games against Madhya Pradesh and Bengal respectively. Wicketkeeper-batsman Eklavya Dwivedi has been appointed as his deputy.

The 15 member squad includes the likes of Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Ankit Rajpoot and Kuldeep Yadav. Both Rajpoot and Kuldeep Yadav were a part of Duleep trophy squads played in the month of August/September whereas Suresh Raina was the captain of India Green, one of the three teams selected by BCCI for the tournament.

A thing is to be noted that a few months back Suresh Raina alleged U.P.C.A. officials of nepotism and favouritism in the selection process and even said that the future of Uttar Pradesh cricket is in dark. Still, the selectors have retained him the squad to lead the team.

However, we may see a change of captain midway of the tournament as Suresh Raina might get an Indian call up for the five matches ODI series against New Zealand. In that case, Eklavaya Dwivedi will take over the charge as the captain of the team.

The former under 19 player Sarfaraz khan, who switched over to Uttar Pradesh last year have also been included in the squad. It will be a chance for him to perform in one of the premier domestic tournaments to get a promotion to the next level.

Last year, U.P. finished their campaign on the fifth stage in group B, thus failing to qualify for the quarter-finals. They could just manage to win two games out of eight games played by them. 5 off the eight games ended in a draw whereas they suffered a loss in one game against Railways.

The current champions of Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy will be looking to keep their shortest format form alive in this format as well. Uttar Pradesh last won Ranji Trophy in 2005/06 season by virtue of gaining first innings lead against West Bengal in the final. Suresh Raina scored twin half century whereas Mohammed Kaif scored a half century followed by a century in the all-important final clash.

Uttar Pradesh will play the first game at Bilaspur against Madhya Pradesh.

This year, the Ranji trophy matches will be played at neutral venues and it will be interesting to see how players react to this new concept.

The Uttar Pradesh squad is as follows-

The team: Suresh Raina (captain), Eklavya Dwivedi (vice-captain), Almas Shaukat, Umang Sharma, Samarth Singh, Mohd Saif, Sarfaraz Khan, Pravin Kumar, Ankit Rajpoot, Imtiaz Ahmed, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Israr Azim Khan, Saurabh Kumar, Deependra Pandey, Amit Mishra, Tanmay Srivastava.

The U.P.C.A. also announced their women squad for the state senior women one-day tournament. Deepti Sharma will be leading the women team. The squad is as follows –

The team: Deepti Sharma (captain), Aditi Sharma, Bhawna Tomar, Anju Rani, Apoorva Bharadwaj, Ayushi Chaudhary, Neetu Singh, Shashi Mathur, Neeshu Chaudhary, Ekta Singh, Tarun Kala, Shaifali Sahu, Sweta Verma, Shiva Kothari. Coach: Archana Mishra; Manager: Jully Ojha; Physio: Laxmi Rathore.