A relegation-threatened Bengal will look to recover the deficits that plagued its performance in the previous rounds when its takes on more successful Tamil Nadu in the fifth round Ranji Trophy elite group ‘B' encounter at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday.
Having conceded first innings lead (and three points that came with it) in the last couple of drawn encounters (against Madhya Pradesh and Haryana), Bengal finds itself at the bottom of the group league table with five points. Staring at a possible ejection from the elite stage, the host seems to have made its mind to go all out as the visitor found a green top greeting it at the venue — Eden Gardens — on the eve of the encounter.
Bigger challenge
“It appears to be a decision-making wicket,” said Sourav Ganguly, who has accepted the State body's request to lead the team again in absence of Manoj Tiwary and Wriddhiman Saha. The latter two batsmen are out on national duty and this makes the challenge even bigger for the former India skipper, who will have to shoulder more responsibility in absence of the experienced duo in the top and middle order. “We are good enough to beat the next three teams,” Gaguly said about Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Baroda, his team's next three opponents.
Note of optimism
The Bengal captain, who scored a century against Haryana, held a note of optimism saying, “I have seen things changing a lot in the latter half in Ranji, so we still have hope.” Ganguly said adding that the team needs to put up a better showing to realise the objective.
Bengal's bowling has lacked discipline and that would concern Ganguly as he is likely to face a better bowling attack spearheaded by the Tamil Nadu captain L. Balaji on a pace-aiding track.
Tamil Nadu, which has eight points from three matches, finds itself in a four-way tie on points in the league table. Though placed fourth on run quotient — behind MP and Haryana (8 points) and leader Delhi (10 points) — a favourable result here would give it the leverage to look for a quarterfinal spot.
Tamil Nadu, bolstered by the return of experienced middle-order batsman S. Badrinath from injury, would be looking to make the most out of this match.
The team's batting has depth with the presence of a few former India campaigners. With names like Abhinav Mukund, Murali Vijay, wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik and Badrinath strengthening the Tamil Nadu batting, Bengal will have a tough task in hand to realise its goal.
The teams (from):Bengal: Sourav Ganguly (capt.), Arindam Das, Rohan Banerjee, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Subhomoy Das, Writam Porel, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Mohammad Sami Ahmed, Ashok Dinda, Ranadeb Bose, Iresh Saxena, Arnab Nandy, Joyojit Basu, Veer Pratap Singh.
Tamil Nadu: L. Balaji (capt.), Abhinav Mukund, M. Vijay, Dinesh Karthik (wk), B. Aparajith, M. Kaushik Gandhi, R. Prasanna, K. Shri Vasudeva Das, Malolan Rangarajan, Sunil Sam, J. Kaushik, V. Yomahesh, R. Aushik Srinivas, Sunny Suresh Gupta, U. Sushil and S Badrinath.
