Ishan Kishan has returned to the Jharkhand Ranji team as skipper after a controversial pullout last season which also led to exclusion from the BCCI central contract. The left-handed batter who became a regular in India's white-ball team post Rishabh Pant's accident in December 2022 took a break during India's South Africa tour last year. This did not go well with him as he, after his break, could not play a single official BCCI match. This gave a concern where the board observed that the players should focus on domestic cricket in case they were out of national duty. In February, he played in the DY Patil T20 Cup before the IPL, which created much debate about balancing franchise and state commitments. He hadn't appeared for his state in domestic cricket, hence missed out on the BCCI's 2023-24 central contracts. However, he has improved since then. While played for Jharkhand in Buchi Babu, Ishan Kishan scored a century and he later went on to play Duleep Trophy as well. He was one of the Rest of India players in the Irani Cup where he managed 38 runs in a single inning. Also Watch | Captain Marnus Labuschagne's Hilarious Field Setting Stuns Umpire and Fans Kishan will lead the young 16-member squad of Jharkhand as its captain. The vice-captain is Virat Singh, and Kumar Kushagra will be the wicket-keeper. The Ranji Trophy will start for Jharkhand against Assam in Elite Group D. Jharkhand had finished third from the bottom in Group A in the last season. They won two and lost two and drew three from their seven matches. The selection committee chairman of Jharkhand, Subroto Das, said to ESPNCricinfo: “Ishan is an experienced player and he has international experience. We have picked a very young team. Saurabh Tiwary, Shahbaz Nadeem and Varun Aaron had all retired after last season so we had to rethink our strategy. Ishan is capable of leading this young side and we’re confident of doing well this Ranji season.” Jharkhand's Squad Ishan Kishan (c), Virat Singh (vc), Kumar Kushagra (wk), Utkarsh Singh, Supriyo Chakraborty, Saurabh Shekhar, Vikas Kumar, Vivekanand Tiwary, Nazim Siddique, Aryaman Sen, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Suraj, Anukul Roy, Manishi, Ravi Kumar Yadav and Raunak Kumar.