Sanju Samson to lead Kerala in Ranji Trophy

KOCHI: The selectors have named three newcomers in Kerala’s Ranji Trophy squad for the first two matches of the upcoming season.
As expected, Sanju Samson has been named captain of the team while opener Rohan Kunnummal will be his deputy.
Krishna Prasad, who has already made an impact in the shorter formats for Kerala, has been given an opportunity to prove his worth in the longer version of the game.Along with Krishna Prasad, southpaw Anand Krishnan from Malappuram and wicketkeeper-batsman Vishnu Raj from Alappuzha are the other new faces in the squad.
Also making a comeback to Ranji Trophy is dashing middle-order batsman Vishnu Vinod. Veteran southpaws Sachin Baby and Rohan Prem have retained their spots while Jalaj Saxena and Shreyas Gopal are the two professional guest players in the squad.
“We have tried to pick a balanced squad considering the different requirements for the longer version of the game. Unfortunately, left-arm spin bowling allrounder Sijomon Joseph hasn’t recovered from an injury and was unavailable for selection,” said P Prasanth, Kerala Cricket Association’s chief selector.
Kerala will open their Ranji campaign against Uttar Pradesh at the SB College ground in Alappuzha on January 5 while their second fixture will be an away game against Assam in Guwahati a week later.
The Kerala team under new coach M Venkataramana failed to reach the semifinals of both the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 and Vijay Hazare one-day tournament. And he will be hoping to make his mark by guiding the team to the last-four stages of the country’s premier domestic competition.
Kerala squad: Sanju Samson (captain), Rohan Kunnummal (vice-captain), Krishna Prasad, Anand Krishnan, Rohan Prem, Sachin Baby, Vishnu Vinod, Jalaj Saxena, Shreyas Gopal, Akshay Chandran, Vaisakh Chandran, Vishweshwar Suresh, Basil Thampi, Nidheesh MD, Basil NP, Vishnu Raj; Support staff: M Venkataramana head coach, M Rajagopal asst coach, Vyshakh Krishna trainer, Unnikrishnan RS physio, Vasudevan Irusan video analyst, Nazir Machan observer.