Debutant Chhattisgarh has suffered a great blow before the start of crucial Ranji Trophy Group-C clash against Kerala which will begin at the Keenan stadium on Thursday.
Chhattisgarh’s influential captain Mohammad Kaif will miss the match due to neck injury and the team which depended so much on his captaincy and presence in its debut season will have to regroup against Kerala which looks to capitalise on its rival’s predicament.
Kaif’s out of box thinking and unconventional field placements was behind Chhattisgarh’s early success this season.
Chhattisgarh’s coach Sulakshan Kulkarni admitted that he would miss the former India player as captain but said Kaif’s absence will present good opportunity for others players to lift their game.
“No doubt we will miss him as captain. Kaif was pretty unconventional with his field placing and was a very demanding captain. But we had played without him earlier in some tournaments and it is an opportunity for others to step up.
“There is only one way for us to improve and that is by playing positive cricket. We will be doing that against Kerala. We are not thinking much about our loss against Haryana. We dominated them in some sessions and we will be taking positives out of it and keen not to repeat mistakes here against Kerala which is a pretty experienced side with couple of good players. But we are capable of beating them,” said Kulkarni.
Abhimanyu Chauhan to leadIn Kaif’s absence, allrounder Abhimanyu Chauhan will lead the side against Kerala.
Despite dominating its opponents in the earlier matches, a win has eluded Kerala so far in the tournament. While rain robbed Kerala of a win against Jammu and Kashmir against Hyderabad it was Anirudh’s maiden first-class century which denied that.
Captain Rohan Prem said Kerala was playing consistently well in the tournament barring the one session against Himachal Pradesh where the team’s batting failed. “We are not taking Chhattisgarh lightly. Even without Kaif, they are a good side.
“In Ranji there are no easy matches and we will have to perform at our best to win. Of course Chhattisgarh is a little inexperienced side and we will be trying to take advantage of that. I am pretty happy with the form of the batsmen and our bowlers. We will be positive tomorrow and hope the wicket will aid us. Against Hyderabad the wicket didn’t break as we thought it would,’’ he said.
Kerala’s slow batting in both matches against Jammu and Hyderabad had come up for criticism but coach Balachandran said it was mostly due to collapse the team suffered in those matches.
“Our aim is to put up big totals and be on the safer side. I hope we will have good partnerships against Chhattisgarh early in the innings as it has been a problem area for us. Chhattisgarh is a good side and we have to be at our best to beat them,” he said.
Will the Keenan stadium change the fortunes of Kerala?
The teams (from):
Kerala: Rohan Prem (captain), Sachin Baby, V.A. Jagadeesh, Bhavin Thakkar, Jalaj Saxena, Sanju Samson, K. Monish, Iqbal Abdulla, Nikhilesh Surendran, Sandeep Warrier, Basil Thampy, Manu Krishnan, Robert Fernandez, M.D. Nidheesh and Tilbin Joseph.
Chhattisgarh: Abhimanyu Chauhan (captain), Rishabh Tiwari, S.S. Gupta, Ashutosh Singh, Ajay Mandal, V.C. Naidu, Shakeeb Ahmed, S.S.Ruikar, A.N. Khare, V.C. Naidu, P.R. Sinha, A. Kant Singh, Pankaj Rao, A. Tamrakar and Manoj Singh.
