Hardik Pandya to skip Ranji Trophy, Kedar Devdhar named Baroda captain
Haridk Pandya will skip the upcoming season of Ranji Trophy
|| Courtesy - Twitter
Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya will skip the upcoming season of the Ranji Trophy to focus on his national side comeback in white-ball cricket. Baroda Cricket Association on Monday announced a 20-member squad ahead of the Ranji Trophy, and Kedar Devdar has been named the captain of the team.
The Ranji Trophy will begin on Thursday, February 10 and the first phase of the domestic tournament will be played until March 15. The competition will be played in two phases, and the knockout stage of the tournament will be held from May 30 to June 26 after the conclusion of IPL 2022.
Meanwhile, Baroda Cricket Association on Monday announced a 20-member squad ahead of the upcoming season of the Ranji Trophy, and Kedar Devdhar has been named the captain of the team. All-rounder Hardik Pandya, who has previously featured for the Baroda cricket team in domestic tournaments has decided to skip the competition in order to focus on his India comeback in limited-overs cricket.Â
Hardik was having persistent back issues and underwent surgery before he made his comeback to Team India in 2019. Since his return to competitive cricket, Hardik has been playing as a specialist batsman for the national side and his IPL franchise, Mumbai Indians. The back injury also kept the all-rounder away from the India Test team since 2018.Â
After the conclusion of the T20 World Cup 2021, Hardik has been away from competitive cricket, and the all-rounder is expected to be back in action in the IPL 2022, where he is set to lead the Ahmedabad franchise in their first season in the cash-rich league.
Recently, the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had stated that he is expecting Hardik to feature in the upcoming Ranji Trophy.
âHardik was injured and a break was given to him to completely recover, so that he can continue to serve Indian cricket for a long period of time. I believe I will see him play some Ranji Trophy to start with. I expect him to bowl a lot more overs and his body will get stronger,â Ganguly told PTI.
Hardik's brother, Krunal Pandya has been included in Baroda's 20-member squad. The spin-bowling all-rounder stepped down as Baroda captain after the team's poor performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where they finished last in Group B.
Baroda Squad: Kedar Devdhar, Vishnu Solanki, Pratyush Kumar, Shivalik Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Abhimanyusingh Rajput, Dhruv Patel, Mitesh Patel, Lukman Meriwala, Babasafikhan Pathan (wk), Atit Sheth, Bhargav Bhatt, Parth Kohli, Shashwat Rawat, Soyeb Sopariya, Kartik Kakade, Gurjindersingh Mann, Jyotsnil Singh, Ninad Rathwa, Akshay More.
