Abhimanyu Easwaran to lead Bengal in Syed Mushtaq Ali

The 19-member squad did not feature veteran Manoj Tiwary and Anushtup Majumder, who have decided to focus more on red-ball games this season. The duo, however, might play the Vijay Hazare Trophy (50-over) meet scheduled after the shortest format games next month.

The squad also misses three old horses -- Wriddhiman Saha, Sudip Chatterjee and Shreevats Goswami who have all shifted bases to different state teams. In Saha and Goswami's absence, Agniva Pan was picked as second wicketkeeper to India U-19 World Cup player Abhishek Porel.

Bengal have a formidable bowling line-up with Ishan Porel, Akashdeep, Sayan Sekhar Mondal and Mukesh Kumar, who too did well in his maiden appearance for India 'A' recently. Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed will lead the spin attack along with Pradipta Pramanik and Writtick.

Bengal are placed in Group E of the competition along with Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Odisha, Chandigarh and Sikkim. The Laxmi Ratan Shukla coached boys will play all their league stage matches in Lucknow, opening against neighbouring Jharkhand on October 11.

Squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (captain), Writtick Chatterjee, Abhishek Das, Ritwik Roy Choudhary, Sudip Gharami, Ranjot Singh Khaira, Agniva Pan ( wk), Abhishek Porel (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Pradipta Pramanik, Karan Lal, Sujit Kumar Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, AkashDeep, Ishan Porel, Sayan Shekhar Mondal, Ravi Kumar, Akash Gathak, Geet Puri.