Bengal’s superb fight-back win over Uttar Pradesh will inspire it against Himachal Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy Group-A match, starting at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Despite the absence of its regular skipper and prolific opener Abhimanyu Easwaran, Bengal, under the leadership of stand-in captain Manoj Tiwary, fought grittily to collect six points in the season opener.
In its second home match, Bengal will rely on in-form batters, including opener Koushik Ghosh, Sudip Gharami, Anustup Majumdar and Tiwary, as the batting unit will try to minimize its mistakes against a better attack.
Pacer Pritam Chakraborty, who provided vital breakthroughs in the first match, has been ruled out due to a hamstring injury.
Nevertheless, Ishan Porel, who bowled beautifully to claim seven wickets against Uttar Pradesh, and Akash Deep will lead the pace pack while looking to bowl with more discipline.
All-rounders Shahbaz Ahmed and Sayan Shekhar Mandal will give balance to the side.
“We will take the positives out of the match against Uttar Pradesh. We now need to start afresh. Himachal will play after a good win. So we need to play with high intensity and look to not repeat the mistakes we have done in the previous match,” said Tiwary.
The Rishi Dhawan-led Himachal, which recorded an innings victory over Haryana in its opening match, will be high on confidence.
The opening duo of Raghav Dhawan and Prashant Chopra, who smashed big centuries, will lead the batting department.
The Himachal seamers, including Dhawan, Vaibhav Arora and Siddharth Sharma, will be eager to make the best use of conditions here while trying to excel again in an away match.
The toss may be crucial as both teams will want to seize initiative on day one.
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