Ashoke Dinda has been awarded as the best bowler of the 2017/18 season by the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB). The 34-year-old had claimed 35 wickets in Ranji Trophy 2017-18 to end as third-highest wicket-taker in the tournament.
Despite picking up eight 5-wicket haul in the last 14 first-class matches and three 5-fer in last year’s Ranji Trophy, Dinda couldn’t find a place in any of the India A squads for the tour of England or against South Africa A. However, he was recently named in India Green squad for Duleep Trophy 2018/19.
Besides Dinda, Ishan Porel (Best Under-19 cricketer) and Abhimanyu Easwaran (Gentleman cricketer of the year) were the other players to be awarded by CAB.
Bengal skipper Manoj Tiwary didn’t attend the award ceremony which led to the speculation that he might not continue as the captain of the state. However, CAB busted all sorts of myth by naming him as the captain of the side for the upcoming season. India cricketers Mohammed Shami and Wriddhiman Saha are also part of the Bengal’s probable list.
Recently, Tiwary expressed his disappointment after not being picked in any of the six squads named by the BCCI last month for three upcoming competitions.
Despite the record-breaking domestic season in which Tiwary recorded the highest average (126.75) in List A cricket in a season with 507 runs, he was overlooked for the India A squads to play four-day matches versus South Africa A, a quadrangular series featuring South Africa A, Australia A and two Indian teams as well as the Duleep Trophy.
The Vijay Hazare Trophy will be the first tournament for Tiwary to begin the upcoming season. He will look to start the season on a positive note to come back in the national reckoning.
Bengal's Probables List:
Manoj Tiwary (captain), Wriddhiman Saha, Mohammad Shami, Ashoke Dinda, Sudip Chatterjee, Abhishek Raman, Koushik Ghosh, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Vivek Singh, Purab Joshi, Anustuph Majumder, Writtick Chatterjee, Satyaki Dutta, Sumanta Gupta, B Amit, Shreevats Goswami, Sayan Sekhar Mondal, Ayan Bhattacharjee, Amir Gani, Pradipta Pramanik, Prayas Roy Burman, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ishan Porel, Alok Pratap Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Sayan Ghosh, Kanishk Seth, Amit Kuila, Veer Pratap Singh, Ritwick Roy Chowdhury, Pritam Chakraborty.
