Indian batsman –Suresh Raina has been released by the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) on Thursday from its squad for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018.

The experienced left-hander, who is considered as on the best fielders of the game, has passed the Yo-Yo test at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and has been named in the Indian squad for the upcoming T20 International series in South Africa after his some impressive display in the Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy.

UPCA has confirmed that Akshdeep Nath, who was picked up by Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) for INR 1 crore in the IPL auction 2018 last week, will lead the side in the absence of Raina.

Raina has been out of the Indian ODI squad since November 2015 and it has been almost 3 years. He played his last T20I for India almost a year ago in February 2017. His Mushtaq Ali performance for UP will certainly act as a catalyst for his T20 performance. His T20 return is also a testament of the fact that the selectors are yet again falling back on experience overseas.

Uttar Pradesh Squad:

Akshdeep Nath (C), Prashant Gupta, Shivam Chaudhary, Umang Sharma, Rinku Singh, Mohammed Saif, Upendra Yadav, Saurabh Kumar, Mohsin Khan, Kartik Tyagi, Ankit Rajpoot, Shivam Mavi, Shubham ChaubeA, Israr Khan, Shanu Saini, Aryan Juyal, Shubham Agarwal.