Bengal take on UP, target first win in Ranji campaign


11th January 2024
Bengal will look to bag their first win of the Ranji Trophy season when they take on Uttar Pradesh in their second Elite Group B match at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur starting on Friday.
The Laxmi Ratan Shukla-coached side will aim to bounce back with a dominant performance after conceding first innings lead against Andhra in their drawn opener.
Despite grabbing just a point from the first game, Bengal will take a lot of positives going into their match against UP.
Opener Sourav Paul, who scored a fine 96 in his debut match against Andhra, will be inching to score some more runs.
The middle order will once again rely on the young and talented batsman Sudip Kumar Gharami along with the experienced Anustup Majumdar. The 39-year-old veteran batsman will go into the match on the back of a superb 125 in the campaign opener.
Alongside the duo, skipper Manoj Tiwary will also be raring to get runs under his belt.
In the bowling department, Bengal will miss the service of Akash Deep, who is on his national duty. In his place, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal is most likely to make his debut. While Mohammad Kaif and Ishan Porel will aim to add more wickets to their tally.
In the spin bowling department, it will be a toss-up between Pradipta Pramanik and Ankit Mishra.
On the other hand, UP will go into the match after bagging first innings lead in their drawn match against Kerala.
However, the home side will miss the services of swashbuckling batsman Rinku Singh and spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who are both in the India squad for Afghanistan T20Is.
In their absence, the team will rely on star batsman Priyam Garg, experienced batter Nitish Rana and wicket-keeper batsman Dhruv Jurel.

CAB MEDIA DESK
Arindam Basu