Akshdeep Nath to replace Suresh Raina as captain of Uttar Pradesh in Ranji Trophy 2018-19

Suresh Raina was recently dropped from the Indian ODI team from the Asia Cup due to his failures on the England tour. In a recent development on the domestic front, Raina has also been replaced as captain of the Uttar Pradesh team for the upcoming season. 25-year-old Akshdeep Nath has been named the skipper, the southpaw will once again take over the leadership role in the Vijay Hazare Trophy that starts on September 19.

Akshdeep has been awarded with this huge opportunity after he had a fabulous performance time in the Vijay Hazare Trophy where he amassed 285 runs in six innings. Whereas his predecessor, Raina only managed to score 105 runs in 9 innings at an average of 11.66 in the last first-class cricket season. Thus, the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) decided to give Nath the nod as the skipper of the side.

Raina’s poor run in the England tour

Raina was drafted into the India ODI side for the England tour as a replacement for in-form Ambati Rayudu, as he failed to clear the yo-yo fitness test. However, the left-hander failed to make use of any of the given opportunities on the tour and managed to score just 47 runs in two innings and 46 of runs came in the second ODI.

Due to his inability to convert and give the team much-needed stability batting in the middle order, Raina was not picked in the India squad for the Asia Cup 2018 and now will also find it very difficult to make a comeback to the national side for the World Cup in 2019.

In the meanwhile, the Suresh Raina-led Uttar Pradesh team will face Saurashtra in their opening game of the Vijay Hazare Trophy on September 19 and will be up against Chattisgarh on September 21. UP then meet Odisha on September 23, Delhi on September 24, Hyderabad on September 28, Madhya Pradesh on September 30, Kerala on October 4 and Andhra Pradesh on October 6 in their next league matches.

The group stage will then be followed by the knockout matches starting on October 14.

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