Vijay Hazare Trophy: Harbhajan unavailable for two games; Yuvraj Singh to lead Punjab

Punjab skipper, Harbhajan Singh, will miss the first two games of the Vijay Hazare Trophy due to personal reasons and in his absence, his deputy Yuvraj Singh will lead the team.

Harbhajan Singh was appointed as the captain of the side for the List A competition before the start of the series with Yuvraj as his vice-captain.

During Ranji Trophy, both of them did not feature in many games and Jiwanjot Singh-led the team whenever they were absent.

They both played the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Twenty20 tournament and Harbhajan led the team in the tournament. He was also given the charge to lead the team in Vijay Hazare Trophy but he has opted out of first two games.

He will be returning to the side first for their contest against Baroda on February 10. In his absence, Yuvraj is leading the team in their first contest against Haryana and will also be leading Punjab for their second game against Odisha.

At the time of filing the news, Punjab were two down at the score of 34 with Yuvraj Singh and Mandeep Singh on the crease.

Former India U19 player, Shubman Gill, is also playing the game and he scored 25 runs before being dismissed by Harshal Patel.

Punjab will play Odisha, Baroda, Karnataka, Assam, and Railways in their next league stage matches.

They have not had a good 2017/18 season. In the Ranji Trophy, they could not qualify for the next round of the tournament as they managed 18 points in six games.

In the short-paced competition of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, they qualified for the Super League but did not qualify for the final of the tournament as their Net Run-rate was lower than Rajasthan, a team which they defeated in their last Super League game.

Punjab is aiming to end the domestic season on a high.

This tournament is also quite crucial for Yuvraj. who is vying to make a comeback in the Indian team. He has already cleared the much-talked-about Yo-Yo test and if he does well in domestic cricket, then there is a possibility for him to earn a recall to the national circuit.

However, the left-handed middle-order batsman Suresh Raina recently made his comeback in the national side after performing well in domestic cricket. He scored 314 runs in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy to make his comeback to the Twenty20 International side for the series against South Africa.

With Indian team still searching for a reliable number four batsman, Yuvraj is still in the race for a comeback in the Indian cricket team.

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