Panda: Back in form?

Jamshedpur, Nov. 12: He may have been found “unfit” until a fortnight ago, but Sumit Panda has turned the tables and emerged as the skipper of the state Ranji squad for the 2006-07 season.

The three-member selection panel comprising Shekhar Sinha, Jodh Singh and Chanchal Dutta Gupta handed over the charge to Panda after a marathon meeting at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) office late yesterday evening.

The selectors also announced a 15-member squad for first the two matches versus Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The squad includes Manish Vardhan, Arun Vidyarthi, Manish Kumar, C.M. Jha, Rajiv Kumar, Ratan Kumar, Mihir Diwakar, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sunny Gupta, Gurjeet Singh, Tariq-ul-Rahman, Madusudan Tantubai, S.S. Rao and Mohit Goyal.

While the veteran batsman Tariq-ul-Rahman has been recalled, batsman Vidyarthi and leggie Singh are the two new faces in the squad.

Sources in the JSCA revealed that the selectors, and a section of senior cricket functionaries, were not unanimous about the selection of the skipper.

While some were batting for all-rounder Mihir Diwakar, some others were backing the candidature of Rajiv Kumar, who led the team last season.

“Panda benefited from the deadlock when either sides was not willing to approve the names of either Diwakar or Kumar. Panda emerged as the ‘compromise’ candidate and was chosen keeping in mind his experience of captaining Jharkhand two seasons back,” one of the sources added.

“Panda’s past performance was taken into consideration before his name was approved. He has led Jharkhand to the semi-finals of the Ranji Plate Group in the 2004-05 season. Moreover, he also bowled well in that season. This clinched the issue in his favour,” one of the selectors told The Telegraph on condition of anonymity.

Asked about Panda’s “faltering” fitness, the selector said they have evaluated him and he was now doing “okay”.