Lucknow's Somjeet Singh to lead Indian Wheelchair Cricket team against Bangladesh

For selection in the Indian team, a selection camp was organised by the Uttar Pradesh Wheelchair Cricket Association (UPWCCA) from April 29 to May 1 at Aryavrat Cricket Ground, Lucknow.

Uttar Pradesh Wheelchair Cricket Association (UPWCCA) President, Anurag Srivastava told ''24 wheelchair cricketers from across the country participated in the camp organized from April 29. Players trained on indoor turf along with ground training and practice matches. Our effort is to provide the best training facilities to our wheelchair players so that they can perform their best in such international cricket tournaments.''

President of Wheelchair Cricket India Association, Sqn Ldr Abhai Pratap Singh (Retd.) said '15 wheelchair cricketers have been selected in the camp organized in Lucknow. Somjeet Singh, the captain of the Indian wheelchair cricket team, will lead the team as captain in this series as well. Continuous practice and training sessions have been conducted for the players under the guidance of Indian Wheelchair Cricket.

Team Head Coach, Sonu Pandey and along with this, these players have also got an opportunity to participate in numerous Zonal and National Tournaments in 2022-2023, due to which our players are in perfect form.'

The Indian wheelchair team players will leave for Kolkata from Lucknow on May 6 and play a three-match T20 match Series against Bangladesh from May 7 to May 9, 2023.

Ravikant Chauhan, General Secretary of DCCI and BCCI Member of Differently Abled Cricket Committee, told ''Our organising committee members have started preparations in Kolkata to secure International level facilities for our Wheelchair Cricketers participating in this series. This series will not only encourage the Divyang Cricketers across the country to move forward but will also present an opportunity to further strengthen the relationship between India and Bangladesh through Differently Abled-Cricket. Despite IPL being held in Kolkata on May 8 and many state-level cricket tournaments underway in West Bengal, the Cricket Association of Bengal has provided ground for our series which shows the commitment of Cricket Administration for our Differently Abled Cricket in India."

Indian Wheelchair Cricket team for Bangladesh series: Somjeet Singh (Captain), Sandeep Kundu, Saurabh Malik, Sagar Gowda, Kabeer Singh, Veer Sandhu (WK), Sahil Syyed, Santosh R, Jeyan, Shailesh Yadav, Umesh Kaushik, Ajay Yadav, Sukhwant Singh, Raja Babu, Prashant Singh and Sunil Rao.

Standby: Bhima Khunti, Rohit Anotra and Golu Chaudhary. (ANI)