The Meghalaya Cricket Association has finalised its 15-member squad and five standbys for the Vijay Hazare Trophy, a BCCI domestic one day tournament for men, which includes a new guest professional player.
Tanmay Mishra is a Mumbai-born batter who has been part of Royal Challengers Bangalore and the erstwhile Deccan Chargers in the Indian Premier League and has also featured for the Tripura state team. In addition, he has played international cricket for Kenya, a country he had grown up in.
His inclusion will bolster Meghalaya’s batting line-up in the prestigious tournament. The Meghalaya Cricket Association has also retained the services of the two other guest professionals who have already represented the state – Rajesh Bishnoi and Nakul Verma.
All of Meghalaya’s seven matches will be held in Jaipur. They have been grouped with Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Services, Manipur and Hyderabad, so Meghalaya will need all the firepower they can muster to take on some of the biggest states in Indian cricket.
The squad is different in many respects from the Meghalaya team that took part in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament recently. Back are Kishan Lyngdoh and Dippu Ch Sangma as well as Jaskirat Singh Sachdeva, who has yet to make his debut in a BCCI senior level tournament.
The players and officials, minus the standbys, will leave for Jaipur on 20 November.
Meghalaya squad: Akash Kumar Choudhary, Anish Charak, Bamanbha Shangpliang, Dippu Ch Sangma, Jaskirat Singh Sachdeva, Kishan Lyngdoh, Lerry G Sangma, Lakhan Singh, Md Nafees Siddique, Raj Biswa, Sanvert Kurkalang, Swarajeet Das, Nakul Verma, Rajesh Bishnoi, Tanmay Mishra
Standbys: Yogesh Tiwari, Wilco Marak, Robert Sangma, Arbin Singh, Rounak Nongrum
Support staff: Goutam Shome (head coach), Moisten Ch Marak (assistant coach), Surojit Biswas (physio), Vikash Singh Chauhan (trainer), OL Warjri (manager)
Fixtures:
vs Vidarbha, 23 November
vs Chhattisgarh, 25 November
vs Jharkhand, 27 November
vs Maharashtra, 29 November
vs Services, 1 December
vs Manipur, 3 December
vs Hyderabad, 5 December