Kolkata: There’s a chill in the air here and nobody is perhaps feeling it the most than the Bengal Ranji Trophy side. Placed fourth on the Elite Group ‘B’ table with four points from two matches, Bengal will desperately look for maximum points when they play Chhattisgarh in the next match at the Eden Gardens from Friday. However, poor weather seems to be chasing the Manoj Tiwary-led side.After being robbed of a possible outright win against Uttar Pradesh in their last match due to bad light, the city experienced sporadic rain on Thursday, putting question marks over the possibility of a full day’s play on Friday.
Bengal are ready to go full throttle in their first home match this season and add wind to their campaign. The team will continue to miss Abhimanyu Easwaran, Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep, all doing duties for the national and India ‘A’ teams while Shahbaz Ahmed will stay away due to injury. But Tiwary said his side is focussing only on what is on the plate. “We have played good cricket in the last matches, although the results might not have reflected that fully,” he stated.
With openers Sourav Paul and Shreyansh Ghosh providing the side good starts and the tail also making useful contributions in the last match, Bengal will hope to put up a good total in home conditions. The hosts are expected to go in with three pacers in Ishan Porel, Mohammed Kaif and Suraj Jaiswal on a pitch which is expected to be a sporting one. Middle-order batter Subham Chatterjee is likely to make his Ranji debut replacing Pradipta Pramanik as Bengal might opt for Karan Lal as the sole spinner.
The teams have not played each other much as Chhattisgarh made their first-class debut in the 2016-17 Ranji season only. But skipper Amandeep Khare did not feel they are inexperienced in any way. “We are playing for seven years now and have enough matches under our belt to be competitive at this level,” the former India U-19 player said. Sitting at second spot with 10 points from two matches, Khare said his boys are upbeat. “We just need to maintain that momentum going into this match,” he stated. The skipper will bank on the batting unit, which has scored consistently, indicating they will play an unchanged side.
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