Ranji Trophy: Nitish Rana and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to Miss First Game for UP, Likely To Return for Second

Uttar Pradesh’s professional player Nitish Rana will miss the side’s first Ranji Trophy game that is scheduled to begin on January 5. UP are slated to take on Kerala in the first match. The left-handed batter is likely to return for the second match.

“Nitish (Rana) is busy with his sister’s wedding during that time but he will be available for the second match,” informs Gopal Sharma, the chairman of the UPCA’s Selection Advisory Committee.

Rana moved base from Delhi to UP ahead of the 2023-24 season and has already featured in UPT20 league, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy for the state. The experienced campaigner led the side in the Vijay Hazare Trophy where UP won four out of their six contests to end with 16 points.

The left-hander, who was recently named vice-captain of KKR, managed just 55 runs from four innings in VHT and picked seven wickets.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is another name who will miss out the first match but will be available for the second. Bhuvneshwar had a good white-ball leg for UP and was the side’s leading wicket-taker with 11 wickets from 5 games.

“Bhuvneshwar is occupied with some personal commitments and he will also be available for the second encounter,” adds Sharma.

Aryan Juyal, Rinku Singh and Dhruv Jurel are some of the prominent names that will don the white kits for UP in the upcoming Ranji Trophy while Sameer Rizvi, who made headlines during the recently-concluded IPL 2024 auction, will also be in action for the side.

The bowling attack comprises of the likes of Yash Dayal, Kartik Tyagi and Saurabh Kumar and wears a very potent look. Kuldeep Yadav is also named in the squad for side’s opening clash.

The Ranji Trophy gets underway on January 5 and will see the top cricketers in action in India’s premier domestic competition. Saurashtra won the 2022-23 edition of the tournament and Bengal finished as runners-up. As far as UP are concerned, they didn’t have a great edition and managed to win just one out of their seven fixtures to finish sixth in their group.