State Sports Minister Manoj Tiwari’s name in Bengal Ranji team. Cricket News – Times of India

Kolkata: Experienced batsman Manoj Tiwari Was named in the 21-man Bengal on Monday Ranji Trophy Squad less than a year after making his political debut for the regime Trinamool Congress party in the state.
The 36-year-old former Bengal captain, who is also the Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs in the Mamata Banerjee-led government, will be gearing up for his 17th year in first-class cricket.
Tiwari, who last played for Bengal in their Ranji final against Saurashtra in March 2020, joined TMC ahead of the assembly elections and won from Shibpur constituency defeating Rathin Chakraborty of BJP.
He missed the COVID-disrupted last season due to injury, but he is back again for the Bengal side Abhimanyu Ishwarani,
Bengal, along with Vidarbha, Rajasthan, Kerala, Haryana and Tripura in Group B, will begin their campaign against Tripura in Bengaluru from January 13.
Bengal’s preparations for the premier first-class tournament have been hit with seven members including seven members testing positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.
Sudip Chatterjee, Anustup Majumdar, Qazi Junaid Saifi, Geet Puri and Pradipta Pramanik, who are among the six players who tested positive, have also been kept in the 21-member squad.
Bengal will face Prithvi Shaw-led Mumbai in a two-day warm-up match at CC&FC on January 6-7 before leaving for Bengaluru.
Shaft: Abhimanyu Easwaran (Captain), Manoj Tiwary, Sudip Chatterjee, Anustup Majumdar, Abhishek Raman, Sudip Gharmi, Abhishek Das, Hrithik Chatterjee, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Abhishek Porel, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sayan Shekhar Mandal, Akash Deep, Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Qazi Junaid Saifi, Sakir Habib Gandhi, Pradipta Pramanik, Geet Puri, Neelkanth Das and Karan Lal.

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