Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy: Abhimanyu Easwaran to captain as Bengal name 19-member squad

KOLKATA: Bengal decided to bank on youngsters as they picked Under-23 skipper Shashank Singh for the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali (T20) tournament.Another youngster, former Royal Challengers Bengaluru bowler Prayas Ray Barman also made a comeback to the side.The 19-member team, to be led by Abhimanyu Easwaran, also features experienced pacer Mohammed Shami.Bengal will also get the service of pacer Mukesh Kumar, who will join the team on his return from India ‘A’ side’s tour of New Zealand.All-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed, who has been named in the India ‘A’ squad, will play Bengal’s opening match against Karnataka on Nov 14 before flying out to Doha for the Rising Stars Asia Cup tournament.Bengal have been placed in group ‘A’ alongside Karnataka, Chandigarh, Jharkhand, Mizoram, Baroda, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. All the group ‘A’ league matches will be held in Mumbai.Bengal squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt.), Sudip Gharami, Yuvraj Keswani, Aditya Purohit, Abishek Porel (wk), Shakir Gandhi (wk), Karan Lal, Pradipta Pramanik, Sourav Halder, Prayas Ray Barman, Mohammed Shami, Mukesh Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Kanishk Seth, Sayan Ghosh, Syed Irfan Aftab, Akhilesh Yadav, Rishabh Chaudhary and Shashank Singh.