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Anustup Majumdar, at 40, has been appointed captain while ace pacer Mohammad Shami’s comeback from injury is still on hold, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) announced late on Friday, October 4.
The squad for the first two matches of the upcoming Ranji Trophy 2024/25 has 12 players who weren’t part of the corresponding games last year. The most notable of them are veteran wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha and left-handed batter Sudip Chatterjee, both of whom made a U-turn after representing Tripura for two seasons.
Anustup has been handed the reins once again after the 2020/21 season. Bengal failed to progress from their group in both the white-ball tournaments. The former Pune Warriors India batter was sacked as captain in the subsequent season.
All-rounder Writtick Chatterjee, who was a part of the Punjab Kings squad in IPL 2022, has also made a comeback after a gap of two years. The 32-year-old was in a rich vein of form at the inaugural Bengal Pro T20 League in June this year. He was the second highest run-getter with 334 runs at a strike rate of 139.17 while scalping 12 wickets at an economy of 5.54.
Off-spinner Aamir Gani, who is handy with the bat as well, has been selected after last playing for Bengal in January 2019. Spin-bowling all-rounder Karan Lal, who was being promoted as an all-format player, missed the cut.
Mohammad Shami was touted to play a couple of domestic matches before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in November-December. But the 34-year-old is yet to recover from his right heel injury. His younger brother Kaif has maintained his spot.
Another interesting development is the demotion of senior fast bowler Ishan Porel to the standby list. 17-year-old pacer Yudhajit Guha has earned his maiden call-up, fresh from impressive performances for India Under-19 against Australia. He took the new ball in the second and third youth ODIs in Puducherry last month. Rishabh Vivek and Rohit Kumar are the other new faces in the fast bowling department.
Faced with a massive void after the retirement of former captain Manoj Tiwary, Bengal called up middle-order batters Shuvam Dey and Avilin Ghosh to the senior squad. While Shuvam was part of joint winners Murshidabad Kings in the Bengal Pro T20 League, Avilin was Mohun Bagan's Cricketer of the Year for 2023.
The core, though, has been retained. Abhimayu Easwaran, Abishek Porel, Shahbaz Ahamad, Sudip Kumar Gharami, Akash Deep, Mukesh Kumar, Pradipta Pramanik, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, will be key to Bengal’s chances of winning the elusive Ranji Trophy title.
Full Bengal squad for first two Ranji Trophy 2024/25 matches
Anustup Majumdar (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sudip Gharami, Sudip Chatterjee, Abishek Porel (wk), Shahbaz Ahamad, Writtick Chatterjee, Avilin Ghosh, Shuvam Dey, Aamir Gani, Pradipta Pramanik, Akash Deep, Mukesh Kumar, Md. Kaif, Suraj Jaiswal, Rishabh Vivek, Yudhajit Guha, Rohit Kumar
Stand-by: Ishan Porel, Sumit Mohanta, Geet Puri, Soumyadip Mandal, Ananta Saha, Pritam Chakraborty
Bengal schedule for Ranji Trophy 2024/25
Uttar Pradesh vs Bengal: October 11-14, Lucknow
Bengal vs Bihar: October 18-21, Kolkata
Bengal vs Kerala: October 26-29, Kolkata
Karnataka vs Bengal: November 6-9, Bengaluru
Madhya Pradesh vs Bengal: November 13-16, Indore
Bengal vs Haryana: January 23-26, Kolkata
Bengal vs Punjab: January 30-February 2, Kolkata
