Yash Dayal, the left-arm quick who hasn't played in representative cricket since June 2025, has been included in the Uttar Pradesh squad for the upcoming Ranji Trophy season.
The team will be led by Aryan Juyal and also features Abhinandan Singh, the 29-year-old right-arm quick who has never played first-class cricket.
Dayal, who stayed away from the game after the IPL 2025 final, where he was part of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) title-winning line-up, following charges related to sexual assault, was left out by RCB for the IPL 2026 season with "personal reasons" given as the reason.
There was talk of a possible move to Chhattisgarh for the upcoming domestic season, and it is understood that the paperwork for the move was on and he even attended a pre-season camp for Chhattisgarh, but that has been scuttled with his home association picking him. Most recently, Dayal was in action in the Ghaziabad Premier League T20 tournament in June.
Elsewhere, legspinner Zeeshan Ansari has made a comeback to the Uttar Pradesh red-ball side after a gap of six years. He recently played a four-day game for India A against Sri Lanka A - in July in Galle - which was only his sixth first-class appearance.
Uttar Pradesh Ranji Trophy squad
Aryan Juyal (capt, wk), Rinku Singh, Abhishek Goswami, Aradhya Yadav, Karan Sharma, Madhav Kaushik, Aditya Sharma, Siddharth Yadav, Prashant Veer, Kartik Yadav, Zeeshan Ansari, Vansh Choudhary, Yash Dayal, Priyam Garg, Abhinandan Singh, Kartik Tyagi