In a recent development, a former Mumbai Indians (MI) cricketer has been named captain of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) team for the upcoming Ranji Trophy 2024-25 season.

Aryan Juyal, who was bought by the five-time IPL champions for INR 20 lakhs in the IPL 2022 auction, will now take over the captaincy of the UP team.

Speaking to TOI after his appointment as captain, Juyal said, “I have been given a huge responsibility. Last season, I captained a match against Kerala where I scored a century and UP won that match. This time the team has more young players and we will do our best with a new approach.”

UP will miss some big names from the team

Speaking of the team, this season sees a mix of experienced players and new faces in the committee-selected 22-member squad, which includes six substitute players.

However, due to domestic commitments, dynamic batsman Rinku Singh will miss the first round of matches but players like Nitish Rana and Yash Dayal are included in the squad for the first two matches.

The team will also be without players like Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav and Dhruv Jurel this season. Kumar, who now concentrates exclusively on white-ball cricket, marks a significant change in his career. Meanwhile, Yadav and Jurel are preparing to represent India in the Test series against New Zealand later this month.

UP will begin their campaign against Bengal on October 11 at the Ekana International Cricket Stadium.

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UP Squad for Ranji Trophy 2024-25

Uttar Pradesh Team (First Two Matches): Aryan Juyal (C) (WK), Swastik Chikara, Priyam Garg, Akshdeep Nath, Nitish Rana, Saurabh Kumar, Ankit Rajpoot, Aaqib Khan, Vipraj Nigam, Yash Dayal, Shivam Sharma, Siddhartha Yadav, Madhav Kaushik, Vijay Kumar, Aaditya Sharma (WK), Kritagya Singh.

Waiting: Atal Bihari Rai, Prince Yadav, Abhishek Goswami, Vineet Panwar, Vaibhav Chaudhary, Kartikey Jaiswal.

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