Rakesh, Sambhashiva new faces in Kerala Ranji team

Kochi, Oct 27 (UNI) Two new faces -- Rakesh K J and Sambhashiva Sharma -- were today named in the 15-member Kerala Ranji cricket team for the first two matches for this season.

Announcing the team here, Kerala Cricket Association Secretary T C Mathew said the team would be led by Sony Cheruvathara for the entire season. The team would play its first two matches against Vidharbha at Nagpur from November 3 and Services at Palakkad on November 15.

''A review meeting after the first two matches will decide whether the team needs to be changed for the subsequent matches in the season'' , he said.

Though Indian pace bowler S Sreesanth was included in the team, Prasanth Parameswaran would replace him if he was called for national duty.

The team : Sony Cheruvathara (Capt) Jagadeesh (V Capt), S Sreesanth, Prasanth Parameswaran, Tinu Yohanan, Sambhashiva Sharma, Sebastain Antony, Raiphy Vincent Gomes, Robert Fernandez, Rohan Prem, Vinan G Nair (wkt), Prasanth Chandran, P Prasanth, Rakesh K J, S Aneesh and Sreekumaran Nair.

Team Manager Saji Kumar and Coach P Hariharan.

UNI