Cuttack: The Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) announced a 22-member State squad on Wednesday for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy cricket tournament.
The team has been announced following the senior men’s selection committee meeting held at the OCA office on Tuesday.
Right-handed batsman Santanu Mishra has been appointed as the skipper of the young squad. As many as eight new faces have been drafted into the team. They include Rama Chandra Behera, Amrit Khatua, Rakesh Pattnaik, Kartik Biswal, B Shiva, Sourav Kanojia, Harshit Rathod and Bikash Rout.
“We have given chance to some young and exciting prospects in the team. Keeping a long-run vision in mind, the team has been selected. We want to nurture and groom these talented youngsters for building a strong Odisha team in the future,” said Pravanjan Mullick, Chairman of the senior men’s selection committee.
Earlier on February 7, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had announced the schedule for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The tournament to be held in Bengaluru will start on February 20. The group stages of the competition will be conducted until March 1 and after a short break for a week, the knockout stages will be played from March 8. The semi-finals and the final will be played on March 11 and 14 respectively.
The squad:
Santanu Mishra (Captain), Sandip Patnaik, Debashis Samantray, Subhransu Senapati, Abhisek Yadav, Gourav Choudhury, Rama Chandra Behera, Amrit Khatua, Rakesh Pattnaik, Kartik Biswal, Rajesh Dhuper (WK), Pravin Loha (WK), Ankit Yadav, Suryakant Pradhan, Debabrata Pradhan, Rajesh Mohanty, Tarini Sa, B Shiva, Harshit Rathod, Sourav Kanojia, Bikash Rout and Prayash Singh Thakur; Coach: Rashmi Ranjan Parida.