Newsfile: India's 2022-23 domestic cricket season

Ajinkya Rahane will lead the Mumbai squad in the upcoming Ranji Trophy season, which starts on December 13. In-form batter Suryakumar Yadav, who has been rested for the ongoing ODI series in Bangladesh, will be available for the second round game against Hyderabad from December 20 in Mumbai. Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan and Tushar Deshpande were the other notable names in the squad of 17 for the opening game against Andhra.

Sarfaraz’s brother Musheer Khan, who was selected for the knockouts last season but didn’t get a game, was also picked.

ESPNcricinfo has learnt Dhawal Kulkarni and allrounder Shivam Dube have not recovered from their injuries they picked up before the Vijay Hazare Trophy and were hence not available for selection. The pace attack will be led by Deshpande, with Mohit Awasthi and left-armer Royston Dias for company.

Siddhesh Lad (Goa), Arjun Tendulkar (Goa) and Aditya Tare (Uttarakhand) have switched sides after the last season.

Squad: Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Armaan Jaffer, Sarfaraz Khan, Suved Parkar, Hardik Tamore, Prasad Pawar, Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Awasthi, Siddharth Raut, Roystan Dias, Suryansh Shedge, Shashank Attarde, Musheer Khan

B Indrajith has been named captain of Tamil Nadu for Ranji Trophy 2022-23 with R Sai Kishore as his deputy. Vijay Shankar, who missed the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy due to injury, is back in the 15-member squad named for the first three games.

Explosive batter Shahrukh Khan will miss the initial rounds of the red-ball competition due to injury. Shahrukh suffered a knee injury in Tamil Nadu’s last league game in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and missed their quarter-final defeat against Saurashtra. Affan Khader, Ajith Ram and fast bowler Trilok Nag are the new faces in the squad.

Both Ram and Nag performed well in Tamil Nadu’s four-day games against Bangladesh A – Ram picked up a four-for in the first game while Nag picked three in the second. R Ashwin and Washington Sundar will join the team depending on their availability.

Tamil Nadu squad: Baba Indrajith (capt), R Sai Kishore (vice-capt), B Aparajith, B Sai Sudharsan, N Jagadeesan (wk), Pradosh Ranjan Paul, NS Chaturved, Affan Khader, Vijay Shankar, R Kavin (wk), Ajith Ram, Sandeep Warrier, Aswin Crist, L Vignesh, Trilok Nag

Priyank Panchal will lead Gujarat with wicketkeeper-batter Het Patel as his deputy. Het finished as the leading run-getter for Gujarat, who made a group-stage exit last season. Chintan Gaja will lead the bowling attack with Arzan Nagwaswalla and Siddharth Desai for company.

Gujarat squad: Priyank Panchal (capt), Het Patel (vice-capt & wk), Saurav Chauhan, Siddharth Desai, Chintan Gaja, Manan Hingrajia, Umang Kumar, Bhargav Merai, Arzan Nagwaswalla, Karan Patel, Hardik Patel, Shen Patel, Kathan Patel, Tejas Patel, Priyesh Patel

Former India wicketkeeper-batter Ajay Ratra has been appointed as the coach of Uttar Pradesh for this Indian domestic season. Ratra, who had previously coached Assam, is now looking forward to working with the UP players.

"It is a great opportunity for me that I am getting to coach a team like UP," Ratra told PTI. "It is a talented side and there is a lot of potential."

Ratra also brings with him IPL experience, having been an assistant coach with Delhi Capitals in IPL 2021.

Ratra, who made his international debut in 2002, played six Tests and 12 ODIs for India. His maiden Test century against West Indies in Antigua - an unbeaten 115 - which made him the fifth-youngest Indian and the youngest wicketkeeper overall to score a Test hundred. He played 99 first-class matches, scoring 4029 runs at an average of 30.29, which included eight hundreds and a double-century. He also played in 89 List A games, scoring 1381 runs at 22.63.

Ishwar Pandey, the former Madhya Pradesh and Chennai Super Kings seamer, has announced his retirement from international and domestic cricket. Pandey, now 33, came close to playing in international cricket when he was picked in India’s squad for the New Zealand tour in 2013. Pandey had been selected on the back of a chart-topping 48 wickets in the 2012-13 Ranji Trophy season.

Pandey took 3 for 42 in the tour game against New Zealand XI in Whangarei, but didn’t get a chance to make his international debut.

“Though I was not fortunate enough to play a game for my country, but still to be part of the Indian team will always be the most special memory of my life,” Pandey said in a post on Instagram. “I still feel bad I couldn’t get a game to play for my country and I will always be known as an uncapped Indian cricket player.”

Pandey, though, got more opportunities in the IPL, where he played for Chennai Super Kings and Pune Warriors. He featured in 25 games for Super Kings, picking up 17 wickets at an economy rate of 7.42. Pandey’s last domestic game was in the Ranji Trophy against Kerala in March 2022.

Wicketkeeper-batter Shreevats Goswami will play for Mizoram in the upcoming domestic season, having decided to move on after playing for Bengal for 13 years. He was not among the 41 probables that Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) named last month.

Goswami, 33, last played for Bengal in the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2021 and did not feature in the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy, where Bengal lost to eventual champions Madhya Pradesh in the semi-final. He last played red-ball cricket in 2020.

“I took the decision after I was left out of the probables for the season,” Goswami was quoted as saying by Sportstar. “After playing first-class cricket for 13 years for Bengal, all I needed was some sort of clarity, but there was nothing. That was a sign for me that perhaps my time was up for Bengal.

“When this offer came my way, I took it up. I know it is a plate team, but then there are responsibilities. I have a lot of cricket left, so I decided to move on.”

Goswami was part of the team led by Virat Kohli that won the 2008 Under-19 World Cup. He has scored 2534 runs in 55 first-class matches, 3185 runs in 91 list-A games and 2311 runs in 104 T20 matches, including 31 in the IPL.

Goswami is the third player from Bengal to shift teams ahead of the upcoming season after Wriddhiman Saha and Sudip Chatterjee (both Tripura).

The Punjab Cricket Association has appointed former India and Mumbai fast bowler Aavishkar Salvi as the head coach of the senior men's side for the upcoming season. He will take over from Surendra Bhave, under whom Punjab had a quarter-final finish in the Ranji Trophy last season.

"With the kind of quality Punjab have in their squad, it will be interesting to work with them," Salvi was quoted as saying by the Times of India. "Some of them have played for India, too."

Young Abhishek Sharma led Punjab last season while Shubman Gill and Arshdeep Singh, who have been part of the Indian team in recent times, with the latter playing the Asia Cup, also play for Punjab. Fast bowler Sidharth Kaul and experienced batter Mandeep Singh also turn out for Punjab in the domestic circuit.

"I would also like to take advice from two stalwarts of Punjab and Indian cricket, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh on how to go about my job," Salvi said. "They have been successful at the highest level, so they know Punjab cricket inside out."

Salvi was the head coach of Puducherry in 2018-19 and 2020-21.

The senior first-class cricketers Aditya Tare and Varun Aaron have ended their time with Mumbai and Jharkhand respectively.

ESPNcricinfo understands that Tare - the last Mumbai Ranji Trophy winning captain - has been granted an NOC by Mumbai Cricket Association to switch sides. He will now represent Uttarakhand for the upcoming season.

"Since I was about 16 years when I got my first Mumbai cap (under-17) until today at the ripe age of 34 I’ve enjoyed myself, played with absolute pride and lived my dream of being a Mumbai player," Tare said in a statement.

"I won't lie, it did hurt the way things ended," he added. "But it's time for new challenges, new environment and I am excited for this new phase in my playing career with so much yet to offer!"

Tare was earlier left out of the latest list of Mumbai probables. He is the third former Mumbai player - after Siddhesh Lad and Arjun Tendulkar (both will play for Goa) to switch teams before the upcoming domestic cricket season.

Aaron, meanwhile, announced his change of teams via Twitter.

Goodbyes are never easy!! As I leave the jharkhand team @cricketjsca , which has been my cricketing home for the last 18 years , I am going on to represent Baroda @cricbaroda in the upcoming domestic season. Looking forward to a great season with the boys in Baroda. pic.twitter.com/MsbdXrsbEL

— Varun Aaron (@VarunAaron) August 29, 2022

After representing Jharkhand across age groups for 18 seasons, he will now play for Baroda. The 32-year-old right-arm seamer has 167 wickets in 63 first-class games.

Hanuma Vihari has been named captain and Mayank Agarwal his deputy for the 2022-23 Duleep Trophy.

Squad: Hanuma Vihari (capt), Mayank Agarwal (vice-capt), Rohan Kunnummal, Devdutt Padikkal, Manish Pandey, B Indrajith, Eknath Kerkar, Ricky Bhui, R Sai Kishore, K Gowtham, Basil Thampi, D Ravi Teja, C Stephen, Tanay Thyagarajan, Lakshay Garg.

One day after Ajinkya Rahane and Karan Sharma were named West Zone and Central Zone captains for the Duleep Trophy, two more teams named their squads on Thursday.

East Zone will be led by Bengal's Manoj Tiwary while North Zone will be captained by Punjab top-order batter Mandeep Singh.

Dhruv Shorey will be North Zone vice-captain while Virat Singh will be Tiwary's deputy for East Zone.

The tournament is scheduled to be played in Tamil Nadu from September 8-25.

East Zone will feature seven Bengal players, four Jharkhand players, two players each from Assam and Tripura, and one from Odisha. North Zone will have pace bowlers Navdeep Saini and Siddharth Kaul, along with 2022 U-19 World Cup winning captain Yash Dhull.

North Zone squad: Yash Dhull, Dhruv Shorey, Manan Vohra, Mandeep Singh (captain), Himanshu Rana, Akash Vashisht, Anmol Malhotra, Mayank Dagar, Pulkit Narang, Navdeep Saini, Siddharth Kaul, Jagjit Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Qamran Iqbal, Vikas Mishra.

East Zone squad: Manoj Tiwary (captain), Sudip Kr Gharami, Anushtup Majumdar, Abhishek Porel (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Ishan Porel, Akash Deep, Virat Singh (vice-captain), Nazim Siddiqui, Kumar Kushagra, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mukhtar Hussain, Riyan Parag, Mani Shankar Mura Singh, Shantanu Mishra.

Mumbai batter Siddhesh Lad will represent Goa in the upcoming domestic season, after getting his no-objection certificate from the Mumbai Cricket Association. He last played for Mumbai in a 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy match in December 2021.

Lad, 30, is a veteran of 61 first-class games and has good numbers overall: 4058 runs in 104 innings at an average of 40.58. However, the re-emergence of Sarfaraz Khan and Mumbai’s focus on building a young core of batters had pushed Lad down the pecking order. He didn’t play a single game in the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy season, where Mumbai finished runners-up to Madhya Pradesh.

Last week, Goa had also announced the signing of another Mumbai man, Arjun Tendulkar, the left-arm fast bowler. However, 22-year-old Tendulkar, who has no first-class experience and has turned out in just two T20 matches for Mumbai over the years, has to prove himself in pre-season matches to get into Goa’s main squad.

Lad made his first-class debut in November 2013 and was part of the Ranji Trophy-winning Mumbai team in 2015-16. That year, in the final, he contributed a vital 88 to help Mumbai consolidate their lead, which proved decisive. He is currently playing in the UK and will be available for Goa’s pre-season games from the end of this month.

Sachin Tendulkar's son Arjun Tendulkar is all set to leave Mumbai and in all likelihood will ply his trade for Goa in the next Indian domestic season.

The BCCI has decided to split the Ranji Trophy into two categories: Elite and Plate. Both are set to run from December 13, 2022 to February 20, 2023, following the conclusion of the white-ball events.

Unlike earlier, where all 38 teams would compete for the same trophy, the 2022-23 domestic season will consist of two Ranji Trophy winners. In the new format, 32 Elite teams will be divided into four groups of eight each, with the top two from each group qualifying for the quarter-finals. This gives each team at least seven matches in the league phase.

Laxmi Ratan Shukla has been appointed head coach of the senior Bengal side for the upcoming season. He succeeds Arun Lal, who stepped down from the post earlier this month.

The BCCI is set to bring back the Duleep Trophy - in a zonal format - and the Irani Cup to a full-fledged 2022-23 senior men's domestic calendar that is set to begin in early September. The board has also added a number of women's competitions this upcoming season, most significantly an Under-16 tournament.