Ravi Kumar included in Bengal Ranji squad

Kolkata: India Under-19 World Cup winning pacer Ravi Kumar was included in the Bengal Ranji Trophy squad on Tuesday. The left-arm bowler shot into limelight with his tremendous show in West Indies where he ended up becoming the second highest wicket-taker for India picking up 10 wickets from six matches.
Representing Bengal in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy (U-19) this season before the tournament got postponed due to Covid situation, Ravi grabbed 11 wickets.
However, it remains to be seen whether the 18-year-old makes it to the playing XI as Bengal have a good pace arsenal of Akash Deep, Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Geet Puri along with veteran Nilkantha Das. But the selectors felt it will be a good opportunity for the youngster to learn and pick up things from chief coach Arun Lal and coach Sourashis Lahiri.
Opener Abhimanyu Easwaran was named the skipper. Keeping in view the Covid situation, the selectors named a 22-member squad that also features a state minister in the form of former skipper Manoj Tiwary. The middle-order batter had earlier skipped the shorter version tournaments this season. However, experienced wicketkeeper-batsman Shreevats Goswami’s name did not figure on the list.
Abishek Porel and Sakir Habib Gandhi were the two wicketkeepers named in the squad.
Strangely experienced wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha opted out of Bengal squad citing personal reasons.
Last Ranji season’s runners-up Bengal, placed in Elite Group B along with Baroda, Hyderabad and Chandigarh, will play all their league stage matches in Cuttack. The team will leave the city on Thursday and will have to remain in quarantine for four days there. The first-round match will begin on February 17.
The squad:
Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt), Manoj Tiwary, Sudip Chatterjee, Anushtup Majumdar, Abhishek Kumar Raman, Sudip Kumar Gharami, Abishek Das, Writtick Chatterjee, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Abishek Porel (wk), Shahbaz Ahamed, Sayan Sekhar Mondal, Akash Deep, Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Kazi Junaid Saifi, Sakir Habib Gandhi (wk), Pradipta Pramanik, Geet Puri, Nilkantha Das, Karan Lal, Ravi Kumar.