The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) also named fast bowler
Mohammed Shami in the squad. However, his participation will need a clearance from the BCCI and head coach Rahul Dravid taking his workload management into account. The squad will be led by Abhimanyu Easwaran.
However, it was 37-year-old Saha whose comeback is a big talking point, given he skipped the league stage citing "personal reasons". That decision came on the back of Saha being left out of India's Test squad for the home series against Sri Lanka. After that selection meeting, it came to light that he had been told by head coach Dravid that he
may not be in the scheme of things going forward.
Saha has been in scintillating form in the ongoing IPL, scoring
281 runs from eight matches at a strike rate of 123.24 with three 50-plus scores, including one Player of the match performance.
Saha aside, the squad has second wicketkeeper in young Abhishek Porel, who impressed in his absence. There was no place for veteran wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami, who continued to be left out of the squad. Goswami is currently in England playing club cricket.
Experienced medium pacer
Nilkantha Das was also included and so was opener
Sudip Gharami, despite a season of non-performance. Junior state sports minister
Manoj Tiwary was also a part of the squad.
Squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt), Manoj Tiwary, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Mohammed Shami, Anustup Majumdar, Sudip Chatterjee, Shahbaz Ahmed, Abhishek Raman, Writtick Chatterjee, Sayan Sekhar Mondal, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Ishan Porel, Koushik Ghosh, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Pradipta Pramanik, Karan Lal, Nilkantha Das, Sudip Gharami, Abhishek Porel, Mohammed Kaif, Ankit Mishra