For those aiming to win back their places in the Test squad or eyeing a spot in the World Cup team next year, it is time to come up with attention-grabbing performances in the domestic competitions this season.
Over the next four days here, the Duleep Trophy semifinal offers a great chance for the come-back aspirants from South Zone and East Zone to make an impression on the National selectors. With Roger Binny – likely to be joined by fellow selector Saba Karim – watching the proceedings, players from both sides should give it all on the field.
South, stronger than East at least on paper, appears to hold an edge with their superior seam and swing attack. Karnataka’s quartet of A. Mithun, R. Vinay Kumar, H.S. Sharath and Stuart Binny will be keen to exploit the pitch and the conditions known to favour the pace bowlers. No wonder, majority of first-class matches played here since November 2006, have been decisive.
For South, Binny, Manish Pandey, K.L. Rahul, Karun Nair and Sanju Samson have come as replacements. With Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik and Pragyan Ojha also keen to prove their worth to the National selectors, South’s think-tank, coach Hemang Badani and skipper Vinay Kumar, are clearly facing a problem of plenty in finalizing the playing eleven.
The decision of West Indies to pull out of the India Tour ensured that East’s skipper Manoj Tiwary and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha – both named in the Board President’s XI against the visitors –are available for this match. The arrival of Varun Aaron has added variety to East’s pace attack.
Tiwary, a centurion against West Zone, admitted that his team knew the pitch better following their 102-run win last week.
“We did concede the first innings lead but (Ashok) Dinda and (Basant) Mohanty bowled brilliantly to win us the game.”
Grappling with injuries and missing many opportunities to be part of the National squad, Tiwary is back in reckoning and knows the importance of doing well consistently this season.
“It is indeed very frustrating to miss out on opportunities to play for the country but I believe in destiny,” reasoned Tiwary and continued, “Instead of brooding over the lost opportunities, I chose to create more chances (to be picked for the country). Perhaps, my modest upbringing has prepared me for tougher battles,” said Tiwary
The teams (from) :
South Zone : R. Vinay Kumar (captain), Robin Uthappa, K. L. Rahul, Abhinav Mukund, Dinesh Karthik, Manish Pandey, Baba Aparajith, Sanju Samson, Karun Nair, Stuart Binny, Pragyan Ojha, A. Mithun, H. S. Sharath, Hanuma Vihari and Shreyas Gopal.
East Zone : Manoj Tiwary (captain), Rameez Nemat, Natraj Behera, Sudip Chatterjee, Saurabh Tiwari, Wriddhiman Saha, L. R. Shukla, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rana Dutta, Basant Mohanty, Ashok Dinda, Varun Aaron, Abu Nachim, Samar Quadri, Govinda Podder and Gokul Sharma.
Umpires : Shahvir Tarapore (KSCA) and P. G. Pathak (MCA); Match Referee : Sanjai Verma.
(Match starts at 9.30 a.m.) .
