THE Senior Selection Committee of Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) has named a 20-strong side to be led by Faiz Fazal for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day cricket tournament. The week-long league stage of Senior Elite Group A that gets under way on December 8 will be held at Mumbai. Most of the players who performed well and helped Vidarbha make it to semi-finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 tournament were automatic choice for the 50-over version. Vidarbha will play Himachal, Andhra, Odisha, Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir in the league stage. Considering the kind of form of the players, it looks like Vidarbha have got a very decent group. Except for Gujarat to some extent, there are no big domestic giants in the group and that might help Vidarbha. Wicketkeeper Akshay Wadkar, who led the side brilliantly and with example in the Mushtaq Ali event, will be Faiz’s deputy. For the longer version, apart from Faiz, who had already announced his retirement from T20 cricket, senior left-arm spinner Aditya Sarvate has been recalled in the squad.

 

Left-arm spinner Parth Rekhade and seamer Sooraj Rai made way for the duo. Vidarbha team: Faiz Fazal (Capt), Akshay Wadkar (VC), Atharva Taide, Ganesh Satish, Apoorv Wankhade, Jitesh Sharma, Yash Rathod, Shubham Dubey, Siddhesh Wath, Aditya Sarvate, Akshay Wakhare, Harsh Dubey, Akshay Karnewar, Lalit Yadav, Siddesh Neral, Aditya Thakre, Darshan Nalkande, Yash Thakur, R Sanjay, Ganesh Bhosale. Support staff: Pritam Gandhe (Coach), Nitin Khurana (Physio), Manoj Sapkal (Team Manager), Yuvrajingh Dasondhi (Strength & Conditioning Coach), Aniruddha Deshpande (Video Analyst).