Cuttack: After a hiatus of close to two years, opening batsman Nataraj Behera made a comeback to the 15-member Orissa Ranji squad for the first game against Tripura, to be played October 6-9. The senior and the under-23 squads were announced by the OCA, here Monday.
Nataraj who last played for Orissa in December, 2015 against Delhi and had scored only eight runs was axed from the squad last year after breach of discipline in the OCA camp. However, this year he has been brought back to the squad to increase the depth of the batting department.
OCA sources stated that the experienced batter has been recalled because none of the four openers could perform according to expectations and consistency. Hence a decision was taken to bring back Natraj.
In another major development, Santanu Mishra, who led the U-23 squad last season has been included in the team. Santanu has been rewarded because of his consistent performance in the junior level.
Selectors have reposed their faith on wicket-keeper Saurabh Rawat again despite his inconsistence performances last year. All-rounder Alok Sahoo has also got a call. The selectors have also retained young opening batsman Sandeep Patnaik, who had batted well in patches last year. The rest of the squad is more or less same with Govbind Poddar retained as captain.
Debendra Kunwar has been given the job of leading the U-23 squad.
The squads:
(Ranji Trophy): Sandeep Patnaik, Nataraj Behera, Santanu Mishra, Abinash Saha, Govind Poddar (captain), Ranjit Singh, Subhranshu Senapati, Biplab Samantray, Saurabh Rawat, Dhiraj Singh, Basant Mohanty, Suryakanta Pradhan, Alok Sahoo, Deepak Behera, Coach: Shiv Sundar Das.
(U-23): Debasis Samantray, Amrit Khatua, Abinash Nayak, Satyajit Sabat, Debendra Kunwar (captain), Rajesh Dhuper, Sarbeswar Mohanty, Venketesh Vande, Dababrata Pradhan, Preet Kanwar Singh Chohan, Asutosh Das, Papu Roy, Jamela Bhanjan Mohapatra, Subham Nayak, Ayaskant Panda; Coach: Suresh Kumar.
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