Courtesy: BCCI

Courtesy: BCCI

Kuldeep Yadav, the Indian unorthodox spinner, has returned to cricket after recovering from a sports hernia surgery, getting named in the Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) Ranji Trophy squad for their clash against Madhya Pradesh (MP), which will begin on Thursday, January 30. The 30-year-old, who hasn’t played any competitive cricket for the better part of the last four months, could be making his first appearance at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore in a four-day match this week.

The previous appearance on a cricket field for Kuldeep Yadav came in the Indian colours in a Test match against New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru in October, 2024, which his team ended up losing after getting bowled out for just 46 runs in their first innings. Since UP and MP are out of the reckoning for the knockout stage of the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 season from Elite, Group C, the left-arm wrist spinner will have the opportunity to test his fitness ahead of a busy period in international cricket.

Recovery takes a team. Grateful to the NCA and it’s team for all the work behind the scenes: Kuldeep Yadav

Kuldeep Yadav is named in the Indian squad for the upcoming three-match home ODI series against England, starting on February 6, in the build-up to the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, which will be played later in the same month. Moreover, just prior to getting named in the UP Ranji Trophy squad for their final group game of the season, he sent out a post on X, which read, “Recovery takes a team. Grateful to the NCA and it’s team for all the work behind the scenes.”

Meanwhile, apart from Kuldeep Yadav, some of the Indian internationals, who are slated to be a part of the upcoming round of Ranji Trophy 2024-25 includes names like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, and Riyan Parag, among others.

Uttar Pradesh squad for Ranji Trophy clash versus Madhya Pradesh: Aryan Juyal (c)/(wk), Karan Sharma, Abhishek Goswami, Madhav Kaushik, Priyam Garg, Rituraj Sharma, Aaditya Sharma (wk), Shivam Mavi, Saurabh Kumar, Shivam Sharma, Kritagya Kumar Singh, Vijay Kumar, Atal Bihari Rai, Vaibhav Chaudhary, Zeeshan Ansari, Kartikeya Jaiswal, Kartik Tyagi, Kuldeep Yadav