Missing Diwali at home is a part of the profession for modern-day cricketers. Those participating in the Duleep Trophy semifinal contest between last year’s joint-winner North Zone and Central Zone at the PCA Stadium here from Wednesday should, however, use this compulsion in order to gain some valuable match-practice ahead of the Ranji Trophy calendar apart from pushing their claims for national recognition.
Even as big stars as well as the up-and-coming ones will look forward to prove a point or two over the next four days, North Zone will miss the services of its captain and experienced off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who is down with a bout of viral fever. “I have been down for two days and the body is too weak for me to take a chance,” said Harbhajan from his home in Jalandhar.
However, North, flaunting its star-studded batting line-up including the likes of stand-in skipper Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, would not be short of experience when it takes on the spirited bowling attack of Central Zone.
Batting depthThese top batsmen have served the country with distinction and are seeking to re-assert their supremacy in the zonal combat. Besides, prominent newer faces such as Mandeep Singh, Jiwanjot Singh and Rajat Paliwal, provide depth to North’s batting.
Central coach Harvinder Singh acknowledged the batting prowess of their opponent, but backed his boys to the hilt. “Bowling is our strong point. We have a good mix of bowlers — pacers in Pankaj Singh, Ishwar Pandey, Jalaj Saxena and Amit Mishra and spinners in Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav and Karn Sharma. It’s our bowling versus their batting,” said Harvinder, hoping that the PCA wicket would maintain its reputation of providing some assistance to the speedsters. Central will miss Railways seamer Anureet Singh, nursing an injured shoulder.
In comparison, North will have to rely on Parveez Rasool and Yuzvendra Chahal in the spin department and look for good performances from faster bowlers such as Harshal Patel, Parvinder Awana and all-rounder Rishi Dhawan.
In order to counter the North bowlers and take the side forward, Central will expect healthy contributions from Naman Ojha, Shalabh Shrivastava, Ashok Menaria and Robin Bist.
The teams (from):
North Zone: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Jiwanjot Singh, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mandeep Singh, Rajat Paliwal, Parveez Rasool, Parvinder Awana, Harshal Patel, Rishi Dhawan, Nitin Saini (wk), Gurkeerat Mann, Yuzvendra Chahal and Samiullah Beigh.
Central Zone: Piyush Chawla (captain), Naman Ojha (vice-captain), Amit Mishra, Ishwar Pandey, Kuldeep Yadav, Mahesh Rawat (wk), Arindam Ghosh, Faiz Fazal, Shalabh Shrivastava, Karn Sharma, Robin Bist, Ashok Menaria, Pankaj Singh, Jalaj Saxena.
Match referee: S. Sharath; Umpires: K. Srinivasan and Mick Martell (Aus).
