Ishant Sharma and Pankaj Singh find a place in the India Blue squad as the National selectors strive to put up a decent combination for the penultimate round match of the Duleep Trophy starting at the Green Park here on Tuesday.
In a must-win situation, India Green, led by Parthiv Patel, takes on India Blue which has a draw against India Red to boost its chances of making it to the final. India Red is assured of a place in the title contest following its victory over India Green in the opening game of the tournament.
From a five-team zonal competition it is now a three-squad tournament where India Blue, Red and Green play each other once under floodlights with a pink ball. Given the condition you would think that it could not get more colourful than this, but in reality it is just the opposite.
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Loss of sheen
On the verge of being dropped from the annual domestic calendar this season, the Duleep Trophy, once a prestigious tournament rated just a rung below Test cricket, has been reduced to a competition few players wish to play and fewer administrators show the interest to host it. Consequently, the event wears a depleted and pitiable look this season.
Players have had issues with sighting the pink ball under lights but the organisers have not heeded to their complaints yet.
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The batsmen have been finding it tough to pick the black seam of the ball and obviously have to play late and sometimes thrusting their bat blindly. The ball, seaming or turning, tends to dip and that makes the batsman’s job all the more difficult.
As India Blue skipper Suresh Raina remarked, “You can’t pick the seam from the bowler’s hand and it helps to rotate the strike and get used to it.” Reverse swing too adds to the challenge.
Looking at the game, Parthiv noted, “We have no choice but to play aggressively and try and win. We have to force a favourable result somehow.”
The game becomes important for Ishant, who has not played any competitive cricket for six months after vainly trying for an English county stint. Incidentally, he was originally named for the first match but failed to report.
Rain on Monday continued to threaten the match; more rain would brighten India Blue’s passage to the final.
The teams (from):
India Green: Parthiv Patel (capt., wk), Prashant Chopra, Nitin Saini, Kaushik Gandhi, Manpreet Juneja, Shivam Chowdhary, Amandeep Khare, Parveez Rasool, Mayank Dagar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Varun Aaron, Aniketh Chowdhary and Anupam Sanklecha.
India Blue: Suresh Raina (capt.), Samit Gohel, Abhimanyu Easwaran, K.S. Bharat, Manoj Tiwari, Deepak Hooda, Ishaan Kishan (wk), Akshay Wakhare, Bharghav Bhat, Ishant Sharma, Pankaj Rao, Jaydev Unadkat, Sagun Kamat and Pankaj Singh.