Sachin Baby to Lead Kerala in Final Ranji Trophy Match, Sanju Samson Rested

Sachin Baby will lead Kerala in the final Group B match against Andhra on Friday in Vijayanagar. It has been decided to rest regular captain Sanju Samson. Kerala won’t be able to advance even if they win the last match. With this, Sanju Samson decided to stay away from the game where the result of the match is irrelevant. The match against Andhra is Kerala’s last match of the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy season.

Sanju Samson played only four matches in Ranji this time. Sanju also lost the match against Bihar earlier. On that day, Sanju withdrew from the competition citing personal reasons. The Malayali player also missed the Ranji Trophy match against Assam as he was in the Indian team for the T20 series against Afghanistan.

Sanju’s failure to bat in the second innings of the match against Bengal left the fans disappointed. It also raised doubts about whether the player is suffering from an injury. But on the fourth day, apart from keeping wickets, Sanju also found time to bowl. This put an end to the worry of injury.

The team management and selectors decided to replace Sanju with the experienced Sachin Baby to lead the team. Baby has been in blistering form this season, scoring 717 runs in six games. Sachin Baby is the third highest run-scorer in the Ranji Trophy this season.

Along with the captaincy change, Kerala has also made some crucial changes in the squad. Kerala, who released Akhin Sattar and Vishnu Vinod from the squad for the last game, included pacer Akhil Skaria and left-arm spinner Mithun PK. Mithun was included as a backup to the injured Jalaj Saxena and Shreyas Gopal who was suffering from fever.

Playing in Elite Group B, Kerala is currently third with 14 points from six games. This means that even if the team wins the last game, it will not advance to the next round. This time Rohan Kunnummal was the vice-captain of Kerala. He led the team in games without Sanju. But in the last league match, the team management decided to trust the experience of Sachin Baby.

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