Jamshedpur’s southpaw Saurabh Tiwary, has been appointed captain of the 15-member Jharkhand squad for Vijay Hazare One-Day league tournament (Ranji Trophy) to be held in Kolkata from November 6 to 13. Batsman Ishank Jaggi will be the vice captain.
City born 25-year-old Tiwary, scored a century in the Duleep Trophy against West Zone. He has replaced Shahbaz Nadeem. He had quit the captaincy during the 2011-12 season due to differences with the coach.
“I am really happy to be appointed as the captain and I am looking forward to the tournament,” Jamshedpur-based Tiwary said.
Saurabh, a favourite of Sachin Tendulkar for his consistent match winning performance in the third edition of the Indian Premier league (IPl-3) for runners up Mumbai Indians, had also performed quite well in the first class cricket but could not prove himself in the 3 ODI he played for Team India in his debut year 2010.
Tiwary, a left-handed batsman began playing cricket at an early age. He represented Jharkhand at the Under-14 level before making his first-class debut in the 2006-07 Ranji Trophy.
He scored two half-centuries in India's Under-19 tri-series victory against South Africa and Bangladesh in 2008 and was a member of the squad that won the U-19 World Cup in Malaysia in 2008.
He performed consistently well in the Ranji Trophy before hitting a peak in the 2009-10 season for Jharkhand, scoring three centuries.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) secretary Rajesh Verma, said that the team is an equal mix of young talent and experience. “It’s a balanced side with some under-19 players and we are confident of better performance in the upcoming tournament,” he said.
The team has young talent like Ashraf, a left-arm bowler from Jamtara who took 10 wickets for Jharkhand in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T-20 zonal league, pacer Rituraj Singh from Palamu, Virat Singh, Ishan Kishan and Rahul Shukla.