Laxman to lead new look Hyderabad, may play just two games

Hyderabad, Oct 29 (UNI) Test cricketer VVS Laxman will lead Hyderabad who would be fielding a relatively new team in the first match against last year's runners up Bengal in the Elite Group-B Super Ranji Trophy cricket championship league to be held at Eden Gardens from November 4 to 7.

Laxman, Arjun Yadav, Pragyan Ojha and Daniel Manohar apart, all the other members of the squad are relatively inexperienced.

While opener D Ravi Teja had played five matches and represented India-A. M P Arjun (3 Ranji matches), Anoof Pai (2 matches) and Amol Shinde (2 matches) are the other new players.

However, Laxman, who is expected to be busy playing for India in Test matches, may be available for the Ranji outings for only two games, both away matches against Bengal and Punjab. Arjun Yadav has been named vice-captain for the team.

Hyderabad would be hoping that Teja and Arjun would be building on their strong debut last season. Teja, a right-hand opening batsman, scored a fine 84 against Maharashtra and Arjun, the right-arm medium-pacer took four wickets against reigning champions Mumbai, in his debut match.

The squad: VVS Laxman (captain), Arjun Yadav, DB Ravi Teja, S Daniel Manohar, S Anoof Pai, Amol Shinde, Habeeb Ahmed (wk), Pragyan Ojha, Praneet Arjun, S M Shoaib, Ashwin Yadav, A Lalith Mohan, Vishal Sharma, Mohammad Ahmed Shakeer, Danny Dereck Prince.

UNI