Bengal announces 18-men squad for the first two games of Ranji Trophy 2024; Manoj Tiwary will lead the side

One of the best teams in red-ball cricket in the last few seasons in India, Bengal announced their squad for the upcoming Ranji trophy on Friday. Without Mukesh Kumar, Akashdeep, Abhimanyu Easwaran, and Shahbaz Ahmed, they had to dig deep to fill the places for the upcoming season.

Manoj Tiwary will lead Bengal in the upcoming Ranji Trophy. He would like to claim the trophy as the captain in the last Ranji campaign of his career. Bengal's first two matches in the Ranji Trophy are against Andhra Pradesh in Visakhapatnam on January 5 and then they will play against Uttar Pradesh.

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Seniors like Anushtup Majumder, Sudeep Kumar Gharami, and Abhishek Podella are in the team. Meanwhile, Shreyansh Ghosh and Saurabh Pal have given a chance in the team too. Along with Abhishek Porel, Sourav will be the second wicketkeeper.

Shahbaz Amed will not be available for the first two matches due to injury. He is currently at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore. Mukesh Kumar is in the Indian team for South Africa tour and will miss the first two matches. Abhimanyu, the right-handed opener, has also gone on tour to South Africa with the Indian team.

Without opener Abhimanyu Eswaran, Bengal have struggled to find a partner for Sudip Gharami in the last two seasons. With nearly five openers tried and tested, the management and selection committee are now ready to look for a new face, who has done it over and over in the local club Cricket. Sourav has been taken as his replacement who is expected to open. Shreyansh Ghosh, who played for Kalighat in club cricket, also got a callup in the team as an opener.

Manoj Tiwary, who has scored 9908 runs in 141 First Class matches with a healthy average of 48.56 will play his last Ranji Trophy campaign of his career. He would like to finish his career on high by winning the Ranji Trophy as the captain of Bengal Cricket Team.

Selected 18-member Bengal squad: Manoj Tiwary (Captain), Anushtup Majumder, Sudeep Kumar Gharami, Abhishek Pordel (Wicketkeeper), Saurabh Pal (Wicketkeeper), Shreyansh Ghosh, Ranjyot Singh Kheira, Shubham Chatterjee, Akash Deep, Ishan Pordel, Pradeepta Pramanik, Karn Lal, Kaushik Maiti, Mohammad Kaif, Ankit Mishra, Prayas Roy Burman, Sooraj Sindhu Jaiswal and Suman Das.