Rourkela allrounder Gobinda Poddar was today retained as the captain of the Odisha state senior team for their opening Ranji Trophy Group-C match against Tripura, scheduled to be played at Vikash Ground in Bhubaneswar from October 6 to 9.

The 15-member team, announced by Odisha Cricket Association (OCA), includes Santanu Mishra as the lone new face. Experienced opening batsman and former captain Natraj Behera has returned to the team after missing the last season completely. Among established players, top-order batsman Anurag Sarangi has been omitted due to injury. The team will have a new coach in former Test opener Shiv Sundar Das, who replaced fellow Test player Debasis Mohanty.

OCA also named a 15-member state under-23 team for their opening Plate Group-B match C K Nayudu Trophy Tournament to be played against Chhattisgarh at Gandhi Stadium in Balangir from October 8 to 11. The team will be led by Debendra Kunwar.

ODISHA RANJI TEAM: Sandeep Patnaik, Natraj Behera, Santanu Mishra, Abinash Saha, Gobinda Poddar (captain), Ranjit Singh, Subhranshu Senapati, Biplab Samantray, Saurabh Rawat (wicket-keeper), Dhiraj Singh, Basanta Mohanty, Suryakanta Pradhan, Alok Sahoo, Alok Mangaraj, Deepak Behera.
Support staff: Shiv Sundar Das (Coach), Subhakant Sahoo (Physio), Manoj Biswal (Trainer).

ODISHA U-23 TEAM: Debasis Samantray, Amrit Khatua, Abinas Nayak, Satyajit Sabat, Debendra Kunwar (Captain), Rajesh Dhuper (Wicket-keeper), Sarbeswar Mohanty, Venkatesh Vande (Wicket-keeper), Debabrata Pradhan, Preet Kanwar Singh Chohan, Asutosh Das, Papu Roy, Jamela Bhanjan Mohapatra, Subham Nayak, Ayaskant Panda.
Support staff: Suresh Kumar (Coach), Biswajit Mohapatra (Physio), Purnendu Jena (Trainer).