KOLKATA: Opener Abhimanyu Easwaran is named the skipper as the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) on Monday announced a 21-member Bengal squad for the Ranji Trophy opener against Tripura. Sudip Chatterjee had led the side in the Syed Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Hazare Trophy meets earlier this season.
Strangely, the names of five of the six players, who had tested Covid positive on Sunday and have been sent into isolation, appeared in the list. The team management is hoping that they will get well by the time the team will fly off to Bengaluru on Saturday. In case they fail they recover, the squad will leave without them.
The team also features a state minister in the form of former skipper Manoj Tiwary, who had earlier skipped the shorter version tournaments. However, experienced wicketkeeper-batsman Shreevats Goswami's name did not figure on the list. Abhishek Porel and Sakir Habib Gandhi were the two wicketkeepers named in the squad.
Bengal, placed in Group B, with Vidarbha, Rajasthan, Kerala, Haryana and Tripura, will play all their matches in Bengaluru.
Squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (c), Manoj Tiwary, Sudip Chatterjee, Anustup Majumdar, Abhishek Raman, Sudip Gharami, Abishek Das, Writtick Chatterjee, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Abhishek Porel, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sayan Sekhar Mondal, Akash Deep, Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Kazi Junaid Saifi, Sakir Habib Gandhi, Pradipta Pramanik, Geet Puri, Nilakantha Das and Karan Lal
Bengal-Mumbai practice tie off:
The first practice match between Bengal and Mumbai scheduled to be held here from Tuesday was called off after Covid cases emerged in both the camps. The Mumbai Cricket Association had requested CAB to arrange some practice matches before the start of their Ranji Trophy campaign in Kolkata and accordingly the Amol Muzumdar coached side arrived in the city on Monday afternoon.
The sides were scheduled to play two two-day matches on January 4-5 and 6-7. But now both sides have planned to play the second practice match only. Accordingly the Mumbai side will practice under bio-bubble protocol at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday.
