Ranji Trophy quarterfinal: Bengal, back to full-strength, looks to start on a high against Jharkhand

Bengal would draw further confidence from the fact that it steamrollered Jharkhand in their previous meeting, in the quarterfinal last season.

File Photo: Anustup Majumdar, another prominent scorer for Bengal, will be keen to make an impact after being ‘absent hurt’ against Odisha due to a thumb injury. | Photo Credit: Vijay Soneji / The Hindu

The availability of pacer Mukesh Kumar boosted Bengal on the eve of its Ranji Trophy quarterfinal match against Jharkhand at the Eden Gardens here.

Mukesh, who was released from the Indian side ahead of the T20I decider against New Zealand, will reconstitute a potent and proven pace trio with Ishan Porel and Akash Deep in the knockout contest starting on Tuesday.

The return of all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed has also strengthened the home team.

Bengal has picked promising left-hander Kazi Junaid Saifi, who performed well at No.4 in the Co. C.K. Nayudu Trophy recently. The host may field Kazi as the opening partner of prolific scorer Abhimanyu Easwaran.

Anustup Majumdar, another prominent scorer for Bengal, will be keen to make an impact after being ‘absent hurt’ against Odisha due to a thumb injury.

Sudip Gharami and captain Manoj Tiwary will be the other reliable hands in the batting department.

Group-A topper Bengal will forget its lone loss to Odisha and will count on the positives to start afresh against Jharkhand.

A full strength Bengal would draw further confidence from the fact that it steamrollered Jharkhand in their previous meeting, by amassing 773 for seven declared, in the quarterfinal last season.

“Our preparations have been good. Now it’s about executing those on the field. All departments look good and we are confident,” said Tiwary.

Even without Ishan Kishan, the presence of experienced campaigners such as Saurabh Tiwary and Shahbaz Nadeem will benefit Jharkhand – which finished second in Group-C even after losing to Karnataka in its final group outing. Some talented players, including skipper Virat Singh, Kumar Kushagra and Anukul Roy, are assets to the side.

“We have been doing well this season and hope to continue that. Our last match against Bengal was tough and we lost. It will be revenge time for us,” said Virat.

The teams (from):

Bengal: Manoj Tiwary (captain), Abhimanyu Eswaran, Anustup Majumdar, Sudip Gharami, Suvankar Bal, Shahbaz Ahmed, Abishek Porel (wk), Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Kazi Junaid Saifi, Pradipta Pramanik, Geet Puri, Pritam Chakraborty, Sumanta Gupta, Ankit Mishra, Akash Ghatak and Durgesh Dubey.

Jharkhand: Kumar Deobrat, Aryaman Sen, Kumar Suraj, Saurabh Tiwary, Virat Singh (captain), Kumar Kushagra (wk), Anukul Roy, Shahbaz Nadeem (vice-captain), Ashish Kumar, Vikash Singh, Vinayak Vikram, Pankaj Kumar, Supriyo Chakraborty, Monu Kumar Singh and Rahul Shukla.