Jhalani named Rajasthan captain

Rajasthan cricket appears to have returned to a semblance of normality with the state board announcing a 15-man squad for the first two games of the season. However, missing from that list is the name of Hemang Badani, who had originally joined the team after cutting ties with the ICL. Manoj Prabhakar, who had been signed as coach before the season, has been replaced by former India player Parthasarthi Sharma.

Rohit Jhalani, a batsman with 52 first-class matches to his credit, has been named captain of the squad which included the veteran Gagan Khoda. With the exception of rookies Pranay Sharma, Ankit Lamba and Vinod Chanawaria, all the players in the squad have played Ranji Trophy cricket.

The Rajasthan government had last month been forced to intervene in an ugly spat between two warring factions in the state's cricket board (RCA) in an attempt to settle the confusion over team representation. An 11-member ad-hoc committee, appointed by the state government, removed Prabhakar from his role and appointed Sharma for three months. Badani is currently playing league cricket in Bangladesh.

Rajasthan play their first match of the Plate League against Assam in Guwahati starting November 3.

Team: Rohit Jhalani (capt), Gajendra Singh, Pranay Sharma, Rajesh Bishnoi, Robin Bist, Vinod Chanawaria, Nikhil Doru, Madhur Khatri, Gagan Khoda, Kuldeep Singh, Ankit Lamba, Sumit Mathur, Pankaj Singh, Vineet Saxena, Vivek Yadav.