Teen sensation Ravi Kumar added to Bengal Ranji squad; Wriddhiman Saha opts out for 'personal reasons'
Fresh from Under-19 World Cup success, left-arm pacer Ravi Kumar has been officially added to Bengal’s 22-member squad for the 2021/22 Ranji Trophy. Bengal have been placed in Elite Group B, alongside Baroda, Hyderabad and Chandigarh.
Ever since he lit up the knockout stage of the recently concluded junior World Cup with his pace and swing, there were talks of pitchforking him into the Bengal senior side. The 18-year-old from Aligarh will finally get to travel with Abhimanyu Easwaran and Co. to Cuttack for the group stage starting February 17. The knockouts, though, will be held in June after the completion of the IPL.
Meanwhile, senior wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha has opted out for 'personal reasons', according to reports. There was a small possibility of him playing the first two matches for Bengal, but the Subhamoy Das-led selection committee has named Abishek Porel and Sakir Habib Gandhi as the two glovemen.
After picking up a solitary wicket in the group stage of the Under-19 World Cup, Ravi Kumar was a force to reckon with in the knockouts. He was the Player of the Match for a scintillating spell of 5-1-5-3 in the quarterfinal against Bangladesh. He further returned figures of 6-0-37-2 in the semifinal against Australia, before grabbing the headlines with 9-1-34-4 in the summit clash against England. Notably, he picked up a wicket in his first over in all the three games.
Ravi earlier represented Bengal in age-group cricket when he scalped 5 wickets at the Under-19 Vinoo Mankad Trophy in October last year.
Full Bengal squad for 2021/22 Ranji Trophy
Bengal squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (captain), Manoj Tiwary, Sudip Chatterjee, Anustup Majumdar, Abhishek Kumar Raman, Sudip Kumar Gharami, Abishek Das, Writtick Chatterjee, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Abishek Porel, Shahbaz Ahamed, Sayan Sekhar Mondal, Akash Deep, Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Kazi Junaid Saifi, Sakir Habib Gandhi, Pradipta Pramanik, Geet Puri, Nilkantha Das, Karan Lal, Ravi Kumar
Chief coach: J. Arun Lal
Coach: Sourasish Lahiri
Bowling coach: Ujjwal Kumar Banerjee