Haladhar, Jayachandra omitted from Orissa Ranji team

A 15-member Orissa team, sans regural members Haladhar Das, P Jayachandra and Sukanta Khatua was today named by the state cricket association for the first two Elite group matches of the Ranji Trophy Championship against Gujarat and Mumbai to be played from November 3 to and 6 and from Nov 10 to 13 respectively. Led by former Test batsman Shiv Sundar Das, the team would leave for Ahmedabad on October 31. Regular wicket-keeper Haladhar Das, experienced all-rounder P Jayachandra and medium pacer Sukanta Khatua were ignored by the selectors, who relaced Haladhar with Subhrajit Sahu. Medium pacer Santosh Jena was included as a new face. Opening bat Bikash Swarup Pati, who suffered a shoulder injury last season, has returned to the team. Orissa team: Shiv Sundar Das (capt), Bikash Swarup Pati, Paresh Patel, Niranjan Behera, Pravanjan Mullick, Rashim Ranjan Das, Subit Biswal, Rakesh Mohanty, Subhrajit Sahu (wk), Debasis Mohanty, Basant Mohanty, Preetamjeet Das, Santosh Jena, Dhiraj Singh, Deepak Ranjan Behera. Support staff: Abakash Khatua (coach), Sujit Kumar Pradhan (manager), Sreenivasa Rao (physio), Ganesh Kar (video analyst), Subhasish Bhuyan (selector).