NEW DELHI: Two days after being removed from captaincy of his IPL franchise Rising Pune Supergiants, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was named captain of the Jharkhand state side for the Vijay Hazare Trophy starting February 25.

In the last couple of seasons, Dhoni while playing for Jharkhand, never captained the side but has taken up the mantle this time round.

It will be a strong Jharkhand team that will be vying for the national championship. Apart from Dhoni, they have the explosive Ishan Kishan and top domestic spinner Shahbaz Nadeem in their ranks. Ishank Jaggi and Varun Aaron, both of whom had landed IPL contracts, are also there in the team with the burly Saurabh Tiwary. Young Virat Singh is also there in the squad. Squad: MS Dhoni (Captain), Ishan Kishan, Ishank Jaggi, Virat Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Kaushal Singh, Pratyush Singh, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sonu Kumar Singh, Varun Aaron, Rahul Shukla, Anukul Roy, Monu Kumar Singh, Jaskaran Singh, Anand Singh, Kumar Deobrat, S Rathore, Vikash Singh.—PTI