By Our Reporter
Shillong, Sep 26: The Meghalaya Cricket Association today revealed the names of its three guest professional players for the 2024-25 season.
Meghalaya have qualified for an Elite Group this season after their phenomenal run in the Plate Group in 2023-24, where they were the runners-up to Hyderabad.
On September 17 the MCA announced a 12-member squad of Meghalaya domiciled players for the first two Ranji Trophy matches along with five standbys.
The three guest professional slots were to be announced and the MCA has done that on Thursday.
Meghalaya’s first Ranji match will be against Services away from October 11 to 14 before they return home to face Tripura from October 18 to 21 in Shillong.
The three guest players are meant to shore up the batting department and have a range of cricketing experience behind them. Ajay Duhan has played his cricket in Haryana up to this point, while wicketkeeper-batter Sumit Kumar has played for Jharkhand, Bihar and most recently Nagaland as a guest player. Anirudh B, meanwhile, has represented both Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad. Both Sumit and Anirudh have first-class cricket experience behind them and the MCA is expecting them to contribute strongly to the Meghalaya team effort.
The MCA also revealed that Kishan Lyngdoh, Meghalaya’s star batting talent, will captain the team once again this season.
2023-24 was hugely successful as he racked up 695 runs in seven matches with the first double century for a Meghalaya domiciled player in first-class cricket.
Kishan’s deputy will be the ever reliable Dippu Ch Sangma, a pace bowler who has also wielded the bat successfully for Meghalaya ever since making his debut in 2018.
Meghalaya squad (first two matches)
Aryan Borah, Akash Kumar Choudhary, Arpit Bhatewara, Bamanbha Shangpliang, Bijon Dey, Chengkam Sangma, Dippu Sangma (V-C), Jaskirat Singh Sachdeva, Kishan Lyngdoh (C), Ram Gurung, Roshan Warbah, Swarajeet Das, Ajay Duhan, Sumit Kumar, Anirudh B
Standbys: Adarsh Joshi, Anish Charak, Lerry G Sangma, Shembhalang Pyngrope, Yogesh Tiwari
Support staff: Prabhakar Bairgond (Head Coach), Moisten Ch Marak (Assistant Coach), Surojit Biswas (Physio), Vikash Singh Chauhan (Trainer), Dister Marbaniang (Manager)