Veteran batsman Manoj Tiwary was appointed as the new Bengal captain for the Ranji Trophy opener against Karnataka by the senior selection committee here on Thursday
Manoj Tiwary
Kolkata: Veteran batsman Manoj Tiwary was appointed as the new Bengal captain for the Ranji Trophy opener against Karnataka by the senior selection committee here on Thursday.
Manoj Tiwary
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Laxmi Ratan Shukla who had been leading the side for quite sometime now wanted to step down from captaincy a few days ago and he had made his wishes known to the selectors via text messages.
His decision to quit came after reports of a friction in the team during their pre-season tour in Sri Lanka.
Tiwary and selection committee chairman Raju Mukherjee, however said everything was just fine within the outfit.
"We are a happy family now. We are looking forward to your support," Mukherjee said.
Speaking on the issue, Tiwary said: "There won't be any more (controversies). The coach (Sairaj Bahatule) and I will hopefully handle the issue."
The new faces in the 15-member squad that was announced are that of Aamir Ghani, right-arm fast bowler Mukesh Kumar and batsman Pankaj Shaw. It will be interesting to see how left-arm off spinner Pragyan Ojha performs for the team in his first season for Bengal.
However, there was no place for veteran offspinner Saurashish Lahiri in the squad.