Vijay Hazare Trophy 2017/18: Priyank Panchal to Lead Gujarat in Parthiv Patel's Absence; Piyush Chawla Included

Gujarat will miss out on the services of their captain, Parthiv Patel, during the league phase of the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2017/18, as the left-handed batsman has not been included in the side.

Patel suffered a finger injury on the fourth and the final day of the third Test match against South Africa in Johannesburg, which also forced him to leave wicketkeeping. Dinesh Karthik, who was already part of the Test side for the third Test, kept wickets for Patel.

The injury will now also see him missing the domestic tournament. He might make a comeback to the side, should Gujarat make it to the next stage of Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Experienced player, Priyank Panchal, will be leading the Gujarat team in Patel’s absence. He has been playing domestic cricket since 2008 and was close to a national call-up last year when he emerged out as the highest run-scorer of 2016/17 Ranji Trophy season.

He went on to play for India A in a couple of series and also played the Duleep Trophy 2017/18.

Gujarat side includes the experienced spinner, Piyush Chawla, who could have been one of the contenders for the post of captain. He had shifted his base to Gujarat before the start of the season, after playing for Uttar Pradesh for a decade. He had a good Ranji season where he scalped 32 wickets in six games.

He also performed well in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy where he scalped ten wickets in four games, which also saw him drawing a big contract in IPL auction where Kolkata Knight Riders retained him for Rs 4.20 Crore.

Gujarat selectors, again, haven’t included a left-arm spinner, Siddharth Desai. The left-arm spinner did well in the Ranji season where he scalped 29 wickets, just second to Chawla in the wickets tally for his state. He missed the bus to U19 World Cup, as he did not perform well in the Challenger Trophy.

Apart from Panchal and Chawla, the success of Gujarat will depend on Rujul Bhatt, Chintan Gaja, Samit Gohel and Chirag Gandhi.

Gujarat will play its league stage matches against Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Goa with the first game to be played on February 5. They will play all their league stage matches in Chennai.

Squad: Priyank Panchal(c), Rohit Dahiya, Rujul Bhatt, Ishwar Chaudhary, Piyush Chawla, Chintan Gaja, Chirag Gandhi, Samit Gohel, Jesal Karia, Bhargav Merai, Ashav Panchal, Hardik Patel, Karan Patel, Dhruv Raval, Santosh Shinde.

Here is the Andhra Pradesh squad for the tournament –

G H Vihari(c), Ricky Bhui, Ashwin Hebbar, Bandaru Ayyappa, Srikar Bharat, Bhargav Bhatt, Girinath Reddy, Karthik Raman, Prasanth Kumar, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Harishankar Reddy, KV Sasikanth, Bukkapatnam Siddharth, Duvvarapu Siva Kumar, Bodapati Sumanth.

Follow Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018 here –

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