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Bengal confident against Uttar Pradesh
12th October 2016
Bengal are a confident lot ahead of their Ranji Trophy season opener against Uttar Pradesh at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur tomorrow. This is the first time that Ranji Trophy will be played on neutral venues removing home advantage that teams had.
Bengal Skipper Manoj Tewari, however, sounded at home with the idea: "The wicket looks good. It is a green top. Let's see if they cut some grass off it or not tomorrow. But irrespective of the wicket the boys can't wait to get on with the match. They are ready. They have worked very hard and it is time to show it where it matters."
Coach Sairaj Bahutule added: "The wicket is a true one. There is some grass on the wicket. But the ball will come on to the bat and it will be a free scoring wicket. The last match here against Australia was a high scoring one. The team has prepared very well. The KSCA trophy was a great motivator. The boys need to go out and deliver."
Talking about the team combination, Manoj said: "We have not decided on the final XI yet. But we are a well balanced side, the boys are in good touch both with bat and ball. We will pick the playing eleven tomorrow."
About the opposition, he said: "They are a very good side. They have some quality players. But we are also well prepared and if play to our abilities we are a tough side to beat."
Bahutule added: "They have some good players. Some veterans are there. They are as strong as the other other team in the group. But we are focussed on our abilities and capabilities."
Bengal will depend heavily on the batting prowess of skipper Manoj Tiwary, along with Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sudip Chatterjee and Sayan Sekhar Mondal. They will hope in absence of in-form Wriddhiman Saha, Sreevats will come good with the bat. The bulk of the bowling will depend on Ashok Dinda, Pragyan Ojha and Amir Gani. Ishan Porel comes into the 16 with a reputation of a good bat.
Suresh Raina led Uttar Pradesh has veterans like Piyush Chawla and Praveen Kumar and young talents like Amit Misra, Kuldeep Yadav, Md Saif and Sarfaraz Khan who can do wonders with ball and bat.
Its a tricky opposition to begin season with, but Bengal looks ready to deliver.
Squad:
Manoj Tiwary(C), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sayan Sekhar Mondal, Sudip Chatterjee, Prasenjit Das, Agniv Pan, Writtick Chatterjee, Pankaj Shaw, Sreevats Goswami (wk), Ashok Dinda, Veer Pratap Singh, Sayan Ghosh, Ishan Porel, Ayan Bhattacharjee, Pragyan Ojha and Aamir Gani
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