Rishabh Pant is packing his kit bag. Two precious possessions with messages from two iconic cricketers make it a treasure. “Always give your best,” signed by Sachin Tendulkar at the back of one bat and “Back yourself” from Virat Kohli makes the other bat a piece of great motivation for the 19-year-old Delhi captain.
In the other camp, Vijay Shankar, a talent worthy of investment for the future, is preparing for an engrossing journey.
Big opportunity
Saddled with the responsibility of guiding a young Tamil Nadu side in the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament here, he says, “It’s a big opportunity. I just want the team to go out and do well. The team will get to experience new things and do well collectively.”
Delhi and Tamil Nadu commence the tournament with one of the most awaited contest of this tournament at the Barabati Stadium here.
The pitch promises a run-feast, but the weather may demand the best of fitness, especially from the bowlers, on a big field.
Pant remains the trigger point for Delhi to achieve its goal — a title to sign off the season. “We excel in this format and have the youth and experience to go the distance,” said Delhi coach K.P. Bhaskar.
Tamil Nadu will miss the services of M. Vijay and R. Ashwin, but the absence of left-arm seamer T. Natarajan and K. Vignesh due to injuries should hurt the team no less. “Things will happen if you perform,” was a realistic assessment of the situation by Vijay Shankar, who has the wily run-getter Dinesh Karthik to assist him in troubled times.
Team win is important
Pant looked at the upcoming match pragmatically. “More than the rigours of captaincy and wicketkeeping, I am keen on seeing the team win. It’s not about an individual’s excellence.”
The teams (from): Delhi: Rishabh Pant (capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir, Manan Sharma, Milind Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Pradeep Sangwan, Pulkit Narang, Vikas Tokas, Navdeep Saini, Sarthak Ranjan, Himmat Singh, Dhruv Shorey, Nitish Rana, Pawan Negi and Kulwant Khajroliya.
Tamil Nadu: Vijay Shankar (capt.), Dinesh Karthik, B. Aparajith, B. Indrajith, M. Kaushik, N. Jagadeesan, G.S. Raju, Aswin Crist, M. Mohammad, Antony Das, R. Rohit, Rahil Shah, M. Ashwin, Sai Kishore, Washington Sundar and S. Radhakrishnan.
The schedule:Group A (New Delhi): Baroda vs Railways; Haryana vs Odisha; Punjab vs Vidarbha.
Group B: At Cuttack: Himachal vs Maharashtra.
At Bhubaneshwar: Kerala vs Tripura.
Group C (Chennai): Andhra vs Bengal; Gujarat vs Mumbai; Madhya Pradesh vs Rajasthan.
Group D: At Kolkata: Hyderabad vs J & K; Jharkhand vs Karnataka.
At Kalyani: Saurashtra vs Services.
