Their most decorated player, Wriddhiman Saha, left the team midway due to his personal animosity against the establishment, but the Abhimanyu Easwaran-led Bengal would still start as favorites against Jharkhand, with their pace trio Ready to tear it apart. The Ranji Trophy quarter-final begins on Monday.
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The trio of Mukesh Kumar (15 wickets), Ishan Porel (14 wickets) and Akash Deep (10 wickets) have been one of the most prolific pace attackers in the country and with a cumulative count of 39 wickets out of 58 that Bengal have got this season, they are in Jharkhand. All the guns in the line-up will come blazing, which has shown firepower during the league stages.
However, players like Kumar Devvrat, Kumar Kushagra, Virat Singh would like to forget their massive 900-run knock against Nagaland, which was their pre-quarterfinals at the Eden Gardens.
It will be a very different battle for the company with prolific spin-bowling all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed (8 wickets) against one of the best home bowling attacks in the country.
When a senior player puts himself above the team
As the new management doesn’t want the 37-year-old second keeper out of the Indian Test team, an upset Wriddhiman cited “personal reasons” for not playing in the league stages, where the team got a new star in 19-year-old Abhishek Porel.
However, after taking a star turn for Gujarat Titans in the IPL, India Discard demanded a public apology from state body functionary Devvrat Das for allegedly insulting him.
Thereafter, he decided not to play one of the most important matches of the season for the state team, which made him the cricketer he is today.
Against this backdrop, the Bengal team, without its No. 1 player with 40 Test experience, would certainly feel disheartened but determined to prove that it has long lived without India’s “star”. suited to.
“We would have liked him because he is a big player but if someone is not ready to play, then his wish has to be respected. If someone is not interested, then forcing that person to play is often detrimental to the interest of one side,” a member of the team management told PTI ahead of the match.
Troubled by the status of Bengal No. 3 and No. 8
Just . with Cricket Bengal coach Sourasish Lahiri, producing a proper “five-day” wicket, pointed out at the academy grounds that some slots are up for grabs.
For third place, it will be a toss-up between two good left-handers playing a good defensive game – the younger Abhishek Raman and the lean Sudeep Chatterjee.
“It’s a tough call as both are quality players,” Lahiri said.
The second position to grab is the all-rounder’s slot, where Sayan Shekhar Mandal, with his tough batting and good seam-up material close to 130 clicks, is considered a better bet than Ricky Chatterjee, who bowls off-spin and goes first. There is also a double century in category cricket.
Of little concern for Bengal, none of their batsmen have scored 250 runs in three league games, with only one century (114 by Ishwaran) in six completed innings.
The leading run-scorer in the league stages is veteran Anushtup Majumdar (242 runs), who is at the receiving end of his career.
However, it is Porel who turns out to be an exciting prospect and in his debut, he scored a scintillating half-century in the fourth innings of 350 against Baroda when the team was bowled out for less than 100 in the first. Turn.
For Bengal, it will be important to counter the two left-arm spinners Shahbaz Nadeem and Anukul Roy, who have been performing well. The quick pairing of Rahul Shukla and Varun Aaron might not be a big threat, especially as the latter hasn’t played any red-ball games in the recent past.
Karnataka find your match in UP
A star-studded Karnataka batting line-up including Devdutt Padikkal, Karun Nair, Manish Pandey and until recently India opener Mayank Agarwal gives the team a menacing look but they will be up against a quality seam attack from Uttar Pradesh including Mohsin Khan and stars. Yash Dayal in his rank.
If Karnataka’s batting looks intimidating, the bowling is a bit thinner than in the days when R Vinay Kumar, Srinath Aravind and Abhimanyu Mithun used to run between the opposition parties.
Often the reserve pacer in that line-up, Ronit More is now the leader of the attack and it will be interesting how he takes on the likes of Rinku Singh, Akshdeep Nath and Priyam Garg.
The match will be played at Alur (1) Ground.
The matches will start at 9:30 am IST.
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