The Ranji Trophy will be commencing on Thursday, February 10 and the first phase of the domestic tournament will be played until March 15. The competition will be played in a couple of phases, and the knockout stage of the tournament will be held from May 30 to June 26 after the conclusion of IPL 2022. Meanwhile, Baroda Cricket Association on Monday announced a 20-member squad ahead of the upcoming season of the Ranji Trophy, and Kedar Devdhar will be leading the squad with the absence of Hardik Pandya.

All-rounder Hardik Pandya, who has previously featured for the Baroda cricket team in domestic tournaments has decided not to take part in the tournament in order to focus on his India comeback in limited-overs cricket. He has been sustaining some issues with his back since he made a comeback to Team India in 2019.

Since his return to competitive cricket, Hardik Pandya has made a comeback to the Indian team but only as a batter. He also played for his IPL franchise, Mumbai Indians as a batter. The back injury also kept the all-rounder away from the India Test team since 2018.

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After the conclusion of the T20 World Cup 2021, Hardik Pandya hasn’t been playing any form of competitive cricket and the all-rounder is expected to be back in action in the IPL 2022, where he is set to lead the Ahmedabad franchise in their first season in the cash-rich league. Recently, the BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had stated that he is expecting Hardik will be taking part in the upcoming Ranji Trophy.

During a recent chat with PTI, Sourav Ganguly said, “Hardik was injured and a break was given to him to completely recover so that he can continue to serve Indian cricket for a long period of time. I believe I will see him play some Ranji Trophy to start with. I expect him to bowl a lot more overs and his body will get stronger.”

Hardik’s brother, Krunal Pandya has been included in Baroda’s 20-member squad. The spin-bowling all-rounder stepped down as Baroda skipper after the team’s poor performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where they finished last in Group B.

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Baroda Ranju Trophy 2021-22 Squad: Kedar Devdhar, Vishnu Solanki, Pratyush Kumar, Shivalik Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Abhimanyusingh Rajput, Dhruv Patel, Mitesh Patel, Lukman Meriwala, Babasafikhan Pathan (wk), Atit Sheth, Bhargav Bhatt, Parth Kohli, Shashwat Rawat, Soyeb Sopariya, Kartik Kakade, Gurjindersingh Mann, Jyotsnil Singh, Ninad Rathwa, Akshay More.