Abhimanyu Easwaran replaces Manoj Tiwary as Bengal captain in all formats

Cricket Association of Bengal was in favour of a split captaincy, but Tiwary declined the offer to focus on his batting and offered full support to Easwaran as captain.

Abhimanyu Easwaran's captaincy stint starts with Bengal’s pre-season tournament in Jaipur from September 3.

Abhimanyu Easwaran replaced Manoj Tiwary as captain of the Bengal cricket team in all the three formats for the upcoming domestic season.

Cricket Association of Bengal was in favour of a split captaincy, but Tiwary declined the offer to focus on his batting and offered full support to Easwaran as captain.

"The selectors initially had thought of a split captaincy where they looked at the option of having Abhimanyu Easwaran lead the team in four-day format, while Manoj Tiwary will continue in 50-over and T20s.

"We had discussed this with Manoj (Tiwary) and he feels that it is important for him to concentrate as a player right now. Manoj, whose contribution to Bengal cricket both as skipper and player remains invaluable, assured to guide Easwaran in his job as one of the senior colleague of the team," Cricket Association of Bengal joint secretary Avishek Dalmiya said.

Bengal will begin its domestic season, against Gujarat in the Vijay Hazare Trophy on September 24. Then followed by the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament in November, with Bengal being placed with Assam, Mizoram and Meghalaya in Group D.

In the Ranji Trophy, Bengal are clubbed with Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Vidarbha, Hyderabad, Delhi, Rajasthan and Punjab in a Elite Group A. It faces Kerala in its opening fixture on December 17.

The 23-year-old’s captaincy stint will begin with Bengal’s pre-season tournament in Jaipur from September 3.

Bengal squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt),  Sudip Chatterjee (vice-capt), Manoj Tiwari, Ashoke Dinda, Shreevats Goswami,  Anustup Majumder, Vivek Singh, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Abhishek Raman, Writtick Chatterjee, Akash Deep, Ayan Bhattacharjee, Raju Halder, Prayas Ray Barman, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ramesh Prasad, Arnab Nandi, Sayan Ghosh, Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Agniv Pan; Coach: Arun Lal.