Three games into the Ranji Trophy season, fortunes have been mixed for the Tamil Nadu side.
A dispiriting loss against Karnataka, an emphatic win over Jammu & Kashmir and a battling draw against Madhya Pradesh have been parts of its story so far.
On Sunday, when it takes on Railways, it will be time to make a statement of intent.
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“Every game is new. We have put the past behind,” said assistant coach M. Sanjay. “This team is a blend of youth and experience.
“We have faith in the boys and their ability. They will learn from their mistakes and do better.”
For the home side, batting has in particular been inconsistent. While top-order collapses hurt the side against Karnataka (second innings) and MP (first innings), it has also found it tough to consolidate from good positions.
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“There have been quite a few good starts,” said Sanjay. “We need some luck too. Players are still learning. Seniors like Abhinav [Mukund] and [Dinesh] Karthik know how to counter [adverse conditions]. Others will learn.”
The pitch, like it did against MP, is expected to favour the spinners and TN looks set to retain the trio of Malolan Rangarajan, Rahil Shah and R. Aushik Srinivas. However, L. Balaji has been rested with the game against Bengal in mind where pacemen are expected to get more assistance.
Vijay Shankar and R. Sathish have been drafted into the squad and the former had a lengthy bowling spell in the nets on Saturday.
On its part, Railways comes into the match on the back of a loss against a rampaging Karnataka team. However, draws in the first two games against Mumbai and MP prove that it is no pushover.
“Mindset is always positive,” said batting coach Zakaria Zuffri. “We lost [to Karnataka] because of one bad session. Apart from that we have been playing good cricket.”
“We got the first innings lead against MP and dominated while Tamil Nadu conceded the lead against MP. That’s a positive sign for us,” he added.
Railways too will go into the match with three spinners.
The teams (from):
Tamil Nadu: R. Prasanna (captain), Abhinav Mukund, M. Kaushik Gandhi, B. Aparajith, Dinesh Karthik, B. Indrajith, Malolan Rangarajan, R. Aushik Srinivas, K. Bharath Shankar, U. Sushil, T. Natarajan, Rahil S. Shah, Vijay Shankar, R. Sathish.
Railways: Mahesh Rawat (captain), Ranjit Kumar Mali, Rohan Bhosale, Krishnakant Upadhyay, Arnab Nandi, Anustup Majumdar, Avinash Yadav, Ashish Yadav, Arindam Ghosh, Abhishek Kaushik, Anureet Singh, Amit Mishra, Nitin Bhille, Prashant Awasthi, Bhima Rao.