The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) has named Mandeep Singh as their captain for the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 Trophy after the BCCI rejected Yuvraj Singh's request to approve him coming out of retirement to play for Punjab.

India’s 2011 World Cup winner Yuvraj had announced his retirement from all the forms of cricket in 2019 and later went on to play in overseas leagues like GLT20, T10 after getting NOC by BCCI – which meant he can’t participate in any of the competitions conducted by the board.

However, earlier this year, the all-rounder intended to come out of retirement to play in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and he has also written a letter to the BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, seeking permission to come out of retirement, but the board turned out his plea.

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The PCA had named Yuvraj in the Punjab probables for the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy 2020-21 starting January 10 but he couldn’t play in the domestic T20 competition since the all-rounder was denied to come out of retirement and play domestic cricket.

Meanwhile, PCA named a 20-member squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy – which will be led by Mandeep with Gurkeerat Singh Mann will be his deputy in the tournament.

Munish Bali will be the head coach of the Punjab team and he will have the assistance of the former Indian fast bowler, Manpreet Singh, Gony as bowling coach, and Sandeep Sawal as fielding coach.

Punjab is placed in Elite Group A along with Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Railways, and Tripura. Punjab will play all the league matches at Alur and will depart for Bangalore on January 2.

Here’s Punjab Squad:

Mandeep Singh (C), Gurkeerat Singh Mann (VC), Rohan Marwaha, Abhinav Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Anmol Malhotra, Sanvir Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Karan Kaila, Mayank Markande, Abhishek Sharma, Ramandeep Singh, Siddharth Kaul, Barinder Singh Sran, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Singh Brar, Baltej Singh Dhanda, Krishan, Gitansh Khera

(With TNN/TOI Inputs)