Ranji Trophy 2022-23: Shahbaz Ahmed back in Bengal squad for quarterfinal vs Jharkhand

All-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed has made a comeback to the 17-member Bengal squad for its Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Jharkhand, to be held at the Eden Gardens from January 31 to February 4.

FILE PHOTO: Shahbaz Ahmed in action. | Photo Credit: THE HINDU

All-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed has made a comeback to the 17-member Bengal squad for its Ranji Trophy quarterfinal against Jharkhand, to be held at the Eden Gardens from January 31 to February 4.

Shahbaz featured in five matches for Bengal in the ongoing Ranji Trophy season before joining the Indian squad for the ODI series against New Zealand. He scored 215 runs at at an average of 53.75 while also picking 15 wickets for Bengal in five games.

Bengal topped Elite Group A in the league stage after winning four, losing one and drawing two matches. Uttarakhand was the other team from the group to qualify for the last-eight stage.

Incidentally, Bengal and Jharkhand had faced off in the quarterfinal in the last edition of the Ranji Trophy too, in Bengaluru. Bengal scored a mammoth 773 for seven in its first essay and advanced to the semifinals on first-innings lead.

Both Bengal and Jharkhand head into the quarterfinals on the back of defeats in their last group stage game. While Bengal suffered a shock seven-wicket defeat to Odisha, Jharkhand was trounced by Karnataka by nine wickets.

THE SQUAD

Manoj Tiwary (captain), Abhimanyu Eswaran, Anustup Majumdar, Sudip Gharami, Suvankar Bal, Shahbaz Ahmed, Abishek Porel, Ishan Porel, Akash Deep, Kazi Junaid Saifi, Pradipta Pramanik, Geet Puri, Pritam Chakraborty, Sumanta Gupta, Ankit Mishra, Akash Ghatak and Durgesh Dubey.