Newly elected Jharkhand Ranji captain Shiv Shankar Rao and his predecessor Manish Vardhan. Pix: Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Nov. 23: Pacer Shiv Shankar Rao will lead Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy Plate Group B tie against Himachal Pradesh from November 29 at Mecon grounds.

Rao, the Dhanbad-based spearhead of Jharkhand, replaced a woefully out of form Manish Vardhan as captain.

The 15-member squad announced by Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) secretary also has three new faces in Rameez Nemat, Santosh Tiwary and Keshav Kumar. They came in for Sunny Gupta, Prabhat Kumar and Chandra Mohan Jha.

Vardhan, who has been the Ranji skipper for last two seasons, scored just 55 runs in three matches (six innings) he has played this season. Woefully short of runs, the former skipper batted down the order in the last match against Goa. But that did not help Vardhan.

Sources said keeping in mind the fragile batting line-up of the state team, the selectors did not drop Vardhan for the tie against Himachal.

“Look, he’s an experienced player who revels in crunch situations. We felt it was not wise to drop Vardhan from the squad,” a JSCA official said.

Rao, on the other hand, has picked up 15 wickets in the last three Ranji matches.

Team: Shiv Shankar Rao (Captain), Manish Vardhan, Subroto Ghosh, Shabir Hussain, Ishank Jaggi, Saurabh Tiwary, Aamir Hashmi, Rameez Nemat, Santosh Tiwary, Santosh Lal, Kuldeep Sharma, Yajuvendra Krishanatry, Keshav Kumar, Manoj Kumar and Sujit Kumar Roy.