LUCKNOW: Young wicketkeeper and batter Aryan Juyal will lead Uttar Pradesh cricket team in the Ranji trophy this season. The UP team will play its first match against Bengal from Oct 11 at Ekana international cricket stadium.
The selection committee handpicked a formidable contingent of 22, with six of them being standby players. As Rinku Singh is playing for Team India, he will not be available for the first round of matches.
Prominent names in the team include Yash Dayal, Akshdeep Nath, Swastik Chikara, Priyam Garg, and Nitish Rana. Two new players from Lucknow Vipraj Nigam and Kritagya Singh have also been included in the team.
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav and Dhruv Jurel have not been named in the squad. So far as Bhuvi is concerned, it seems to be the end of the road for the lanky pace bowler, who now concentrates only on white ball cricket. As for Kuldeep and Jurel, they will be in the Indian Test team to face New Zealand in a three-match series beginning later this month.
Talking to TOI, skipper Aryan Juyal said, "I have been given a big responsibility. Last season, I captained one match against Kerala where I scored a century, and UP won that match. This time, the team has more young players and we will give our best with a new approach."
"It's a good team and a balanced side. The goal is to win the Ranji Trophy this time. In the batting unit, we have Swastik Chikara, Priyam Garg, Nitish Rana, and experienced Akshdeep Nath," he said.
"In the bowling attack, the spin side includes Saurabh Kumar, who has 312 wickets in first-class cricket. Leg-break bowler Vipraj Nigam recently took 20 wickets in 11 appearances in the UPT20 league. Slow left-arm bowler Shivam Sharma is an excellent player in the spinning unit and took highest wickets in the 2021-22 Vijay Hazare Trophy," he added.
"In the pace unit, we have Aaqib Khan who has been doing exceptionally well. Sameer Rizvi will play Under-23 cricket first and later join Ranji," he added.
Notably, Sameer Rizvi, who scored 468 runs in 13 matches, and Lucknow leg spinner Zeeshan Ansari, who earned purple cap and took 24 wickets in 12 matches in the UPT20 league, have not been included in the squad.
Team: Aryan Juyal (captain, Wk), Swastik Chikara, Priyam Garg, Akshdeep Nath, Nitish Rana, Saurabh Kumar, Ankit Rajpoot, Aaqib Khan, Vipraj Nigam, Yash Dayal, Shivam Sharma, Siddhartha Yadav, Madhav Kaushik, Vijay Kumar, Aaditya Sharma (Wk), Kritagya Singh; Standby: Atal Bihari Rai, Prince Yadav, Abhishek Goswami, Vineet Panwar, Vaibhav Chaudhary and Kartikey Jaiswal
