New Delhi, Oct 9 (IANS): India wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan has been named as skipper of the Jharkhand team for the first two matches of the upcoming Ranji Trophy season. Jharkhand will play their Elite Group D games against Assam in Guwahati, before travelling to Ahmedabad to face Railways.

Kishan had missed the 2023/24 Ranji Trophy season due to mental fatigue, after returning from the tour of South Africa and even lost his BCCI Central Contract. But he made a comeback to red-ball cricket via this year’s Duleep Trophy – making scores of 111, 1, 5 and 17 for India C – after missing the first round due to injury.

He recently made 38 for the Rest of India in the Irani Cup clash against Mumbai in Lucknow. Before this, Kishan, the left-handed batter, played for Jharkhand in this year’s Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament in Tamil Nadu, where he began the competition by hitting a century.

Virat Singh, who led Jharkhand in the last Ranji Trophy season, has been named as Kishan's deputy. Under Virat’s leadership, Jharkhand had finished sixth out of eight teams in Elite Group A after amassing 16 points – coming via winning two, losing two and drawing three of their seven games.

Jharkhand is looking to rebuild its team after Saurabh Tiwary, Shahbaz Nadeem and Varun Aaron retired from professional cricket at the end of the last season. The squad also has youngsters like wicketkeeper-batter Kumar Kushagra and left-arm spinner Anukul Roy, who previously played for India in U19 World Cups and has played in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Jharkhand squad:

Ishan Kishan (captain), Virat Singh (vice-captain), Kumar Kushagra (wk), Nazim Siddique, Aryaman Sen, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Suraj, Anukul Roy, Utkarsh Singh, Supriyo Chakraborty, Saurabh Shekhar, Vikas Kumar, Vivekanand Tiwary, Manish, Ravi Kumar Yadav, Raunak Kumar