The Hindu : Sport : Chance for aspirants to catch the eye

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 23, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport

Chance for aspirants to catch the eye

S. Sabanayakan

Whatmore expects a keen battle for supremacy in Challenger Trophy

— Photo: K. Pichumani

BIG OPPORTUNITY: India Green’s Cheteshwar Pujara (left), seen here with skipper Mohd. Kaif and Shikhar Dhawan (centre), will be eager to showcase his skills in the Challenger Trophy.

CUTTACK: Life is full of opportunities. And one of the biggest tournaments of the domestic season — the N.K.P. Salve Challenger Trophy — which begins at the historic Barabati Stadium here on Thursday will certainly provide ample chances for the players to establish their credentials.

The three teams — India Blue, Red and Green — have a good sprinkling of established stars and aspiring youngsters. For players who have already donned the India colours like Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli and Pragyan Ojha, this will be an opportunity to prove their worth again.

Final destination

There are many aspiring candidates who will look to catch the eye of the National selectors. With a long season ahead and many international assignments coming up, a good performance may open the doors to the final destination — Team India.

Among the young hopefuls trying to break into the big league, Saurashtra’s Cheteshwar Pujara is an exciting prospect. He has scored two triple hundreds in the West Zone under-22 competition this year and was also consistent in the previous domestic season. Pujara is certainly a player to watch out for.

Bengal’s Manoj Tiwary is another who is trying to get back his place in the Indian team. Tiwary, who unfortunately dislocated his shoulder when he was with the senior team, has not got enough opportunities to show his mettle. He will definitely not be lacking in motivation during the four-day competition.

Murali Vijay of Tamil Nadu, Mumbai’s Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan of Delhi will be looking forward to showcasing their talent. Jharkhand’s Saurabh Tiwary, a hard-hitting left-hander, will also be keen to grab the chances that come his way.

Prominent names

On the bowling front, there are a clutch of talented players. Ashok Dinda of Bengal, Delhi’s Pradeep Sangwan, Siddharth Trivedi of Gujarat, Karnataka’s R. Vinay Kumar, Pankaj Singh of Rajasthan and Manpreet Gony of Punjab are some of the prominent ones to look out for.

Mumbai’s Abhishek Nayar and Laxmi Ratan Shukla of Bengal are two players who will be eager to display their all-round skills.

Piyush Chawla of Uttar Pradesh will have Delhi’s Chetanya Nanda as his competitor in the leg-spin department.

Nanda came up with a sensational effort in the Irani Trophy and got a lucky break here as a replacement for Amit Mishra. Tamil Nadu’s R. Ashwin and Mohnish Parmar of Gujarat are the two off-spin bowlers who will be watched with interest.

Among the three sides, India Blue, which has won the maximum number of titles, looks the most balanced. Captain Yuvraj rated the other teams as “good” and wanted his team to play well in order to take home the trophy.

Yuvraj eager

Yuvraj is not happy with his form and expects to regain his touch during the tournament.

“My form is not good. I will try and get some runs in this tournament. Getting a big hundred will help me a lot,” he said after the team’s training session.

His coach Dav Whatmore felt the teams were equally strong and expected a keen battle for supremacy. He informed that Irfan Pathan might not play on the opening day owing to a calf muscle strain.

The teams:

India Blue: Yuvraj Singh (Capt.), Ajinkya Rahane, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Ravinder Singh, Ashok Dinda, Pradeep Sangwan, Chetanya Nanda, Arjun Yadav, Siddharth Trivedi, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yogesh Takawale and Irfan Pathan.

India Red: S. Badrinath (Capt.), M. Vijay, F. Fazal, Manoj Tiwary, Rohit Sharma, Jaydev Shah, Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar, L. Balaji, Piyush Chawla, Parthiv Patel, R. Vinay Kumar, Mohnish Parmar and Wriddhiman Saha.

India Green: Mohd. Kaif (Capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, Cheteshwar Pujara, Yusuf Pathan, Naman Ojha, Saurabh Tiwary, L.R. Shukla, Manpreet Gony, R.P. Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Rajat Bhatia, Abhinav Kumar and Pankaj Singh.

The schedule

Oct. 23: India Blue vs India Red

Oct. 24: India Red vs India Green

Oct. 25: India Blue vs India Green

Oct. 26: Final

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport