Abhimanyu Easwaran will lead Bengal in its Ranji Trophy season opener against Delhi to be played at Bengal Cricket Academy ground, Kalyani, from October 11 to 14.

Under Easwaran, Bengal finished as semifinalist last season after the side lost to eventual champion Jammu & Kashmir.

The first leg of the Ranji Trophy 2026-27 season will begin on October 11 and will run until November 5, while the second leg will start on January 17 next year. The knockouts will begin on February 9.

The squad

Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt.), Sudip Gharami (vice-capt.), Sudip Chatterjee, Abishek Porel (wk), Shakir Gandhi (wk), Ankur Paul, Sumanta Gupta, Ankit Shukla, Subham Chetterjee, Mohammed Shami, Akash Deep, Mukesh Kumar, Suraj Jaiswal, Pradipta Pramanik, Aamir Gani, Mohammed Kaif and Soummyadeep Mandal.

Stand-by: Karan Lal, Akhilesh Yadav, Geet Puri, Abhishek Raman, Subham Sarkar, Sumit Mohanta and Aditya Purohit.