India batter Ishan Kishan on Wednesday returned to the Jharkhand Ranji team as its captain, following his controversial pullout last season that led to his exclusion from the BCCI central contract.

The explosive left-hander, who became a regular in India's white-ball squad after Rishabh Pant's road accident in December 2022, took a break during India's tour of South Africa last year.

Post break, he did not participate in any official BCCI matches, which raised a few eyebrows as the board stressed on players prioritising domestic cricket when not on national duty.

The 26-year-old resurfaced this February, playing in the privately organised DY Patil T20 Cup ahead of the IPL and sparking a debate over balance between franchise cricket and state commitments.

His absence from domestic cricket during this period contributed to his omission from the BCCI's 2023-24 central contracts.

However, Kishan has since worked his way back into the BCCI's good books with strong performances in domestic cricket, including a century for India C on his return in the Duleep Trophy last month.

He also represented the Rest of India in the Irani Cup, scoring 38 in his only innings.

Now, as captain of Jharkhand's 16-member squad, Kishan is set to lead a young squad with last season's designated skipper Virat Singh as his deputy and Kumar Kushagra as the wicketkeeper.

Jharkhand begin their Ranji Trophy campaign against Assam in Guwahati in Elite Group D.

Last season, Jharkhand finished third from the bottom in Group A, winning two, losing two, and drawing three of their seven matches.

"Ishan is an experienced player and he has international experience," chairman of Jharkhand's selection committee Subroto Das was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

"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."

Squad: Ishan Kishan (c), Virat Singh (vc), Kumar Kushagra (wk), Nazim Siddique, Aryaman Sen, Sharandeep Singh, Kumar Suraj, Anukul Roy, Utkarsh Singh, Supriyo Chakraborty, Saurabh Shekhar, Vikas Kumar, Vivekanand Tiwary, Manishi, Ravi Kumar Yadav and Raunak Kumar.

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