Rains had dashed Hyderabad’s hopes of a decent start in the season opener against Maharashtra. And rains may well spoil the team’s plans to change its fortunes at the Gymkhana ground here alongside its opposition Uttar Pradesh, which itself is looking to bounce back from a 21-run defeat in the first round.
Heavy rains in the evenings in the last couple of days have rendered the venue unfit even for training on Friday. Though the entire ground is covered, water from the open spaces nearby has crept its way beneath the covers. Even if it doesn’t rain on Friday, there is no possibility of a prompt start to the game on Saturday, moaned a groundstaff member.
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From the cricketing perspective, UP captain Suresh Raina should be eager to lead from the front to brush aside the humiliating defeat against Railways.
If play is possible, Raina should also look for an improved performance from his team as only Akshadeep Nath and Rinku Singh batted with some authority in the previous game. Openers Shivam Chaudhary and Himanshu Asnora have to get going for the others like Umang Sharma, Raina, and Eklavya Dwivedi to come good.
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Veteran pacer Praveen Kumar leads the new ball attack with promising pacer Ankit Rajpoot and Karthik Tyagi while 22-year-old leggie Zeeshan Ansari is expected to share the spin bowling with his captain. On the other hand, it was not the kind of start J. Arun Kumar would have hoped for in his first stint as coach; but first, he should be hoping for at least some cricket in the second game.
The teams (from)
Hyderabad: A. T. Rayudu (c), Akshat Reddy, Tanmay Aggarwal, B. Sandeep, K. Sumanth (wk), Ashish Reddy, Akash Bhandari, Mehdi Hassan, Saketh Sai Ram, M. Ravi Kiran, Amol Shinde, Rohit Rayudu, Sudeep Tyagi, Mohd. Muddasir, Pragyan Ojha and Chama Milind.
Uttar Pradesh: Suresh Raina (c), Akshadeep Nath, Himanshu Asnora, Shivam Choudhary, Eklavya Dwivedi, Imtiaz Ahmed, Kartik Tyagi, Praveen Kumar, Mohd. Israr, Deependra Pandey, Ankit Rajpoot, Saurabh Kumar, Umang Sharma, Dhruv Pratap Singh, Rinku Singh and Zeeshan Ansari.
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