Probable squad for Ranji, Vijay Hazare Trophy announced by UPCA

Praveen Kumar and Sarfraz Khan not included into the squad.

Published - 23 Sept 2017, 17:46 IST | Updated - 23 Sept 2017, 17:46 IST

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Former Indian International Suresh Raina is all set to lead Uttar Pradesh in the upcoming season of Ranji Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy. Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) took to Twitter to make the announcement of the probable squad.

Due to international duties, the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav are all set to miss out in the upcoming seasons. Though the press release from the board mentions that both will be back in the team whenever available. The other major name to miss out is former Indian swing bowler Praveen Kumar who has not been included in the scheme of things.

Former India’s U-19 sensation Sarfraz Khan is yet another exclusion which might raise a few eyebrows. Sarfraz missed out on the IPL this season due to an injury. He was later replaced by Madhya Pradesh all-rounder Harpreet Singh Bhatia. The prominent names in the Ranji heavy-weights squads are Ankit Rajpoot, Akshdeep Nath, Zeeshan Ansari and Saurabh Kumar. Indian leg-spinner Amit Mishra will feature in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Indian batting mainstay for a number of years under the regime of MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina had been named the captain of the squad many a time by UPCA last year but missed a large chunk of action in the previous season due to personal issues. As a result, his central contract with BCCI was terminated, even though he was part of the T20 squad against England this January.

Since then, he has failed to make the cut into the Indian team due to below par fitness levels. Raina and Yuvraj Singh were expected to be in the squad for the One-Day series against Sri Lanka. But the powerful duo failed in the Yo-Yo Test conducted at NCA, Bengaluru. Raina has been pretty frequent on social media these days, posting snippets of him working day in and day out working towards fitness.