Varun Aaron has been retained as Jharkhand skipper for the upcoming Ranji season. Last season, as well, Aaron led Jharkhand in the first class format before MS Dhoni took over the captaincy for Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Aaron, who last played for India in 2015, was recently included in the India Green side for Duleep Trophy. He also played a game against India Blue.
Jharkhand side includes like of Shahbaz Nadeem, Ishan Kishan, Ishank Jaggi and youngster Virat Singh. The former three players were the part of squads in Duleep Trophy, but Nadeem left the tournament midway due to India A commitments.
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He is currently part of the India A squad and will also play the second unofficial Test against visiting New Zealand A side. Ishan Kishan though has now lost his place in India A side due to poor form. He has been preferred over Rishab Pant in the past in four-day format for wicketkeeping duties but he failed to grab the opportunity, and as a result, Pant was called to India A side as a wicket-keeper batsman.
Meanwhile, if Nadeem is included in India A side for unofficial ODIs as well, then Jharkhand will have to import a spinner. Ankit Dabas and Pratyush Singh are few of the options available.
Jharkhand will open its Ranji Trophy campaign against Kerala in October . They will take on Kerala in their next contest from October 14.
Squad: Varun Aaron (Captain), Ashish Kumar, Babul Kumar, Sunny Gupta, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ishank Jaggi, Jaskaran Singh, Kaushal Singh, Shahbaz Nadeem, Nazim Siddiqui, Samar Quadri, Sumit Kumar, Saurabh Tiwary, Virat Singh, Ajay Yadav.
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