Guwahati, Dec. 15: The axe fell on several heads in the Assam Ranji Trophy team but Sukhwinder Singh retained his captaincy to lead the 15-member squad for the elite group four-day league match against Baroda in Vadodara, beginning December 28.
True to its promise to “roll several non-performing heads”, the Assam Cricket Association today dropped Saurav Bhagawati, Rajkumar Mritunjoy Gohain, Mansoor Ahmed and Baburam Magor from the squad that had a miserable run in the Ranji Trophy East Zone one-dayers in Agartala.
Middle-order batsman Sumit Ranjan Das, Subrajit Saikia and wicketkeeper Samarjit Nath were recalled. Ganesh Kumar has also been called up for Ranji Trophy duty.
The team for Baroda has been asked to attend the nets, beginning Tuesday.
Lalchand Rajput, who is doing national duty as coach of the India under-15 team for the Asia Cup in Sharjah, will retain his coaching assignment for the state.
The match against Baroda will be the fourth four-day league fixture for Assam this season. The state went down to Gujarat and Punjab in the two previous matches. In the first match against Orissa at the NF Railway stadium here, the hosts earned a point by virtue of their first innings lead after rains washed away the last two days’ play.
Assam, touted by the pundits as a fine one-day squad, were badly humiliated in the East Zone one-dayers. They winded the one-day campaign with one win to three defeats.
Eventual winners of the zonals West Bengal pulled off a 168-run win, Orissa handed a nine-wicket defeat and minnows Bihar posted a 21-run victory to complete Assam’s miserable run in Agartala. The only face-saver was Assam’s seven-wicket win against hosts Tripura.
“It is time to crack the whip on the non-performers. Heads must roll. If the trend is not arrested immediately, we will continue to reel under humiliation,” ACA secretary Bikash Baruah had told The Telegraph after the team’s dismal run in the shorter version of the game.
THE TEAM
Sukhwinder Singh (captain), Zakaria Zuffry (wicketkeeper), Kiran Pawar, Manoj Joglekar, Simit Ranjan Das, Parag Das, Mrigen Talukdar, Mark Ingty, Arlen Konwar, Zaved Zaman, Dhiraj Goswami, Sauvik Das, Ganesh Kumar, Subhrajit Saikia and Samarjit Nath (wicketkeeper).
Coach: Lalchand Rajput.
Manager: Sanjay Dey.
