Ishan Kishan is back in Jharkhand's Ranji Trophy team, that too as captain, after missing the 2023-24 season, and last leading the side in 2018-19. Virat Singh, the captain from the previous season - though Saurabh Tiwary led in their last match, after which he retired - has been named Kishan's deputy.
Kishan recently turned out for Rest of India against Mumbai in the Irani Cup, and scored 38 in his only innings. He only kept wickets on the final day, with Dhruv Jurel playing as the designated wicketkeeper. It is likely to be the same with Jharkhand, where Kushagra is the designated wicketkeeper. Prior to the Irani Cup, Kishan had played two matches for India C in the Duleep Trophy, which marked his return to domestic first-class cricket after December 2022.
During this period, Kishan had also lost his BCCI central contract - along with Shreyas Iyer - with a BCCI statement reiterating its recent stance that "all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team".
Jharkhand's squad of 16, with Kumar Kushagra and Anukul Roy in it, is for the first two games of the upcoming 2024-25 season. Their season starts with a game against Assam, in Guwahati, in the Elite Group D. Last season, Jharkhand had finished third from bottom out of eight teams in Group A after winning two, losing two and drawing three of their seven games.
"Ishan is an experienced player and he has international experience," chairman of Jharkhand's selection committee Subroto Das said. "We have picked a very young team. Saurabh Tiwary, Shahbaz Nadeem and Varun Aaron had all retired after last season so we had to rethink our strategy. Ishan is capable of leading this young side and we're confident of doing well this Ranji season."
Jharkhand squad for Ranji Trophy (first two matches)
Ishan Kishan (capt), Virat Singh (vice-capt), Kumar Kushagra (wk), Nazim Siddique, Aryaman Sen, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Suraj, Anukul Roy, Utkarsh Singh, Supriyo Chakraborty, Saurabh Shekhar, Vikas Kumar, Vivekanand Tiwary, Manishi, Ravi Kumar Yadav, Raunak Kumar