Seven new faces in Hyderabad squad

Captain VVS Laxman, Arjun Yadav, Pragyan Ojha and Daniel Manohar will be the only four Hyderabad players with an experience of more than 10 first-class matches going into the Ranji Trophy. Hyderabad have been reduced to this situation after almost all of their team defected to the Indian Cricket League (ICL). D Ravi Teja (5 matches), Praneet Arjun (3), Anoof Pai (2), Amol Shinde (2) are the other players with any experience at first-class level.

Even Laxman, expected to play Tests for India, might be available for only two games, away matches against Bengal and Punjab. Yadav was appointed the vice-captain for the season. Hyderabad will hope Teja and Arjun build up on their strong debuts last season: Teja, a right-hand opening batsman, scored an 84 against Maharashtra and Arjun, right-arm medium-pacer took four Mumbai wickets in his first showing.

Squad: VVS Laxman (captain), Arjun Yadav, DB Ravi Teja, S Daniel Manohar, S Anoof Pai, Amol Shinde, Habeeb Ahmed (wk), Pragyan Ojha, Praneet Arjun, SM Shoaib, Ashwin Yadav, A Lalith Mohan, Vishal Sharma, Mohammad Ahmed Shakeer, Danny Dereck Prince