A starry affair in Orange City

Mohammed Shami will play a couple of games before flying to Australia with his India mates. Bengal will certainly miss his services in the latter part of the tournament, but the team is in fine fettle with the likes of Manoj Tiwary, Wriddhiman Saha, Ashok Dinda and Pragyan Ojha in the mix.

Mohammed Shami will play a couple of games before flying to Australia.

Quite a few star players will be in action in Nagpur over the next week or so for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Bengal's Mohammed Shami will play a couple of games before flying to Australia with his India mates. Bengal will certainly miss his services in the latter part of the tournament, but the team is in fine fettle with the likes of Manoj Tiwary, Wriddhiman Saha, Ashok Dinda and Pragyan Ojha in the mix.

Tamil Nadu will have to do without M. Vijay and R. Ashwin, but it still has Dinesh Karthik and Abhinav Mukund among others. Gujarat has Vijay Hazare Trophy final heroes Parthiv Patel RP Singh to boot.

The biggest crowd puller will, of course, be Virender Sehwag. One of the greatest entertainers in cricket, he is expected to land in the city on Friday evening, and will feature in Saturday afternoon's big game against Tamil Nadu. According to sources, Amit Mishra may also join the Haryana squad.