Saurav Ganguly retained as captain of state side despite Manoj Tiwary's availability

In desperate bid to beat the drop, the Bengal selectors today decided to continue with Sourav Ganguly as the captain of the state side for their match against Delhi from December 13-16 even though regular skipper Manoj Tiwary was available.

While there are theories about Tiwary being stripped off captaincy, chairman of state selection committee Deep Dasgupta defended the committee's decision.

"Saying Tiwary was stripped off captaincy would be wrong. He has been always kept in the loop and he has agreed to the development. The (team's) situation is a little weird now. It's difficult when someone suddenly comes back to the squad."

"To keep the continuity, we retained Ganguly as skipper," Dasgupta said.

Tiwary would only join the side a day before their match against Delhi that is beginning on December 13 as the last ODIis scheduled to be held on Sunday.

Under the former India captain, Bengal conceded three points against Haryana while in the today's-concluded match they conceded bonus point win to Tamil Nadu with a 10-wicket humiliation at home.

But the selectors felt that the retired India left hander Ganguly, who has made himself available for the entire season to hone his skills for Pune Warriors in IPL Twenty20, is the
best possible option to keep a "continuity", even as Tiwary made a return after his one-day stint.