Uttar Pradesh cricket team
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| Captain: | Piyush Chawla |
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| Coach: | Venkatesh Prasad |
| Colors: | Blue White |
| Owner: | Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association |
| Founded: | 1934 |
| Home ground: | <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>
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| Ranji Trophy wins: | 1 |
| Irani Trophy wins: | 0 |
| Vijay Hazare Trophy wins: | 1 |
| Official website: | UPCA |
The Uttar Pradesh cricket team (Hindi: उत्तर प्रदेश क्रिकेट टीम),formerly United Provinces Cricket Team, is a domestic cricket team which is based in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, run by the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association. The team competes in the Ranji Trophy and won the tournament in 2005-06. They have won the Ranji Trophy only once and have been runners-up on five occasions. Young talents such as Suresh Raina, Mohammad Kaif, Piyush Chawla, R. P. Singh and Praveen Kumar and have passed through Uttar Pradesh and gone on to represent India.
Contents
Competition history
The team was formed in 1934 under the name of "United Provinces". The team's best performance in the Ranji Trophy in their early years came in 1939-40 when they finished as runners-up. In the 1950-51 season, the team's name was changed to "Uttar Pradesh".[1]
Uttar Pradesh have not been strong in the Ranji Trophy cricket for any prolonged period in their history. Their only victory in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group was in the 2005-06 season. The Ranji Trophy win was one of the most spectacular comebacks in cricketing history, since at one point of time in the season Uttar Pradesh were on the brink of relegation. They have finished runner-up twice before, once in 1997-98 against a strong Karnataka side, and once in 1977-78 against the same team under the captaincy of Mohammad Shahid and team manager was Abdul Karim Chishti,former captain Uttar Pradesh.They finished runners-up in the 2007-08 season, reprising a performance, similar to the one witnessed in the 2005-06 season, when they came back from the brink of relegation to win the championship. This time though, they lost to Delhi in the final. This season's stellar performers were Mohammad Kaif, their captain who finished as the season's 3rd highest run-getter, medium pacer Sudeep Tyagi,season's 2nd highest wicket taker and Praveen Kumar who took 8 wickets in the Ranji trophy final.[2]
Their best performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy came in 2004-05 when they were joint-winners with Tamil Nadu. In 2006 they won the Nissar Trophy, defeating Sialkot in Dharmasala. Their only appearance in the Irani Trophy came in the 2006-07 season in which they lost to the Rest of India team.
Best performances in Ranji Trophy
| Year | Position |
|---|---|
| 2008-09 | Runner-up |
| 2007-08 | Runner-up |
| 2005-06 | Winner |
| 1997-98 | Runner-up |
| 1977-78 | Runner-up |
| 1939-40 | Runner-up |
Famous players
- Suresh Raina
- Mohammad Kaif
- Sudeep Tyagi
- R. P. Singh
- Piyush Chawla
- Gopal Sharma
- Gyanendra Pandey
- Praveen Kumar
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar
- Sarfaraz Khan
- Clarence Woolmer - father of Bob Woolmer
Current squad
Players with international caps are listed in bold.
| No. | Name | Birth date | Batting Style | Bowling Style | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batsmen | ||||||
| Arish Alam | 19 November 1986 | Right-handed | Right-arm off break | Middle-order Batsmen | ||
| Mukul Dagar | 17 December 1990 | Left-handed | Right-arm medium | |||
| Prashant Gupta | 23 June 1988 | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break googly | |||
| Sarfaraz Khan | 27 October 1997 | Right-handed | Right-arm off break | |||
| Akshdeep Nath | 10 May 1993 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | T20 Captain | ||
| 3 | Suresh Raina | 27 November 1986 | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | ||
| Mohammad Saif | 30 August 1996 | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | |||
| Almas Shaukat | 12 December 1995 | Left-handed | ||||
| Tanmay Srivastava | 7 November 1989 | Left-handed | Right-arm medium | |||
| All-rounders | ||||||
| 21 | Piyush Chawla | 24 December 1988 | Left-handed | Right-arm leg break | LA Captain | |
| 15 | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 5 December 1990 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | ||
| Wicket-keepers | ||||||
| Eklavya Dwivedi | 22 July 1988 | Right-handed | Vice-captain | |||
| Bowlers | ||||||
| Imtiyaz Ahmed | 10 November 1985 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | |||
| 8 | Praveen Kumar | 2 October 1986 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | FC captain | |
| Amit Mishra | 11 November 1991 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | |||
| Ali Murtaza | 1 January 1990 | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | |||
| Ankit Rajpoot | 4 December 1993 | Right-handed | Right-arm medium-fast | |||
| Kuldeep Yadav | 14 December 1994 | Left-handed | Slow left-arm chinaman | |||
