SMAT: Priyam Garg Appointed As Uttar Pradesh Captain, Raina And Bhuvneshwar Are Big Names In The List

Talented batsman Priyam Garg has been named captain of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) team for the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy that starts on January 10 at various centres. The 15-member team includes former state captain Suresh Raina and India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

While announcing the team, the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) said the squad is only for the first two matches of the tournament. Uttar Pradesh

Garg, 20, was captain of the Indian team that competed at the 2020 under-19 World Cup, with the team losing to Bangladesh in the final. He played for SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the 2020 Indian Premier League. Although he scored a half century, Garg had a disappointing season with the bat, scoring just 133 runs at 14.77 in 14 matches.

Bhuvneshwar, on the other hand, featured oly in four matches in the IPL for SRH before being ruled out of the rest of the tournament due to a thigh muscle injury.

Raina announced his retirement from international cricket on August 15, just hours after his former India captain MS Dhoni did the same.

Akshdeep Nath led UP last season. He had replaced Raina as skipper before the start of the 2018/19 Ranji Trophy season.

UP are are placed in Group A along with Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Punjab, Railways and Tripura, and will play their matches in Bengaluru.

Squad: Priyam Garg (captain), Karn Sharma (vice-captain), Suresh Raina, Rinku Singh, Madhav Kaushik, Samarth Singh, Shubham Choubey, Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), Aryan Juyal (wicketkeeper), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ankit Rajpoot, Mohsin Khan, Shivam Mavi, Shiva Singh, Shanu Saini

Standby: Aaquib Khan, Sameer Choudhary, Mohit Jangra, Hardeep Singh, Abhishek Goswami, Nalin Mishra, Purnank Tyagi