It is interesting to know the different targets of Rajasthan and Karnataka as they gear up for their opening Ranji Trophy Super League Group ‘A' match at the Field Club ground here from Thursday.
Rajasthan knows its strengths and weaknesses well. So, the tag of the defending champion does not bring any additional pressure on it. The meteoric rise of the team — from Plate Division to Super League stage to beating strong sides like Mumbai, Tamil Nadu and Baroda on the way to win the title — was the result of a collective effort.
“It was a dream come true. The challenge now is to play consistently well for a few years,” said home team captain Hrishikesh Kanitkar on Wednesday.
Rajasthan suffered in its pre-season game against Rest of India and Kanitkar said the absence of a couple of key bowlers, including strike bowler Pankaj Singh, was a major reason. “Initially, we lost our grip over the match and the Rest batsmen batted well. But now we hope to start well tomorrow.”
The return of a fit Pankaj and the form of another pacer, Aniket Choudhary, who made a mark in his first class debut in the Irani Trophy, would definitely boost the confidence of the host.
Karnataka has a well-balanced team and its main objective is to “win the cup.” The target looks all the more achievable despite the side's failure in the final and semifinals in 2009-10 and 2010-11 respectively.
“We have got a better side and we are ready to deliver the results,” said Karnataka skipper R. Vinay Kumar.
He considered the track to be good for batting and expected some initial help for the pacemen. Spinners might play a part later as the pitch dries out.
The teams (from): Rajasthan: Hrishikesh Kanitkar (capt.), Aakash Chopra, R.R. Parida, Ashok Menaria, Vineet Saxena, Robin Bisht, Pankaj Singh, Deepak Chahar, Shamsher Singh, Sumit Mathur, Vaibhav Deshpande, Dishant Yagnik, Rohit Jhalani (wk), Aniket Choudhary and Madhur Khatri.
Karnataka: R. Vinay Kumar (capt.), Robin Uthappa, K.B. Pawan, Ganesh Satish, Bharath Chipli, Manish Pandey, Amit Verma, C.M. Gautham (wk), Stuart Binny, Abhimanyu Mithun, S. Arvind, K.P. Apanna, Sunil Raju, K. Gowtham, S.K. Moinuddin, S.L. Akshay.
