Ranji Trophy QF: Wriddhiman Saha-Less Bengal Hold Pole Position Against Jharkhand

Bengaluru, June 5 (PTI): Their most decorated player, Wriddhiman Saha, may have left the team in the lurch owing to his personal grudge against the establishment, but the Abhimanyu Easwaran-led Bengal will still start as favourites against Jharkhand with their pace troika ready to let it rip in their Ranji Trophy quarter-final, starting from Monday.
The trio of Mukesh Kumar (15 wickets), Ishan Porel (14 wickets) and Akash Deep (10 wickets) has been the most prolific pace attack in the country and with a cumulative count of 39 wickets among the 58 that Bengal got this season, they will come all guns blazing at the Jharkhand line-up, which has shown firepower during the league stages.
However, the likes of Kumar Deobrat, Kumar Kushagra, Virat Singh will like to forget their overwhelming near 900-run innings score against Nagaland, which was their pre-quarter-final at the Eden Gardens.
It will be a very different fight against one of the best domestic bowling attacks in the country along with the gutsy spin-bowling all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed (8 wickets) for company.
Out of the Indian Test team as the new management doesn’t want a 37-year-old second keeper, an upset Wriddhiman had cited “personal reasons” for not playing in the league stages, where the team found a new star in 19-year-old Abhishek Porel.
However, after doing a star turn for Gujarat Titans in the IPL, the India discard demanded a public apology from state body office-bearer Debabrata Das for allegedly insulting him.
Subsequently, he decided to not play one of the most important matches of the season for the state team, which made him the cricketer that he is today.
In this backdrop, the Bengal side, without arguably its No. 1 player with 40-Test experience, is sure to feel let down but will be determined to prove a point that it has long back adapted to life without an India “star”.
“We would have liked him as he is a big player but if someone is so unwilling to play, his wish should be respected. If someone isn’t interested, then forcing that person to play is often detrimental to a side’s interest,” a member of the team management told PTI ahead of the match.
With the Just Cricket Academy ground producing a proper “five-day” wicket, Bengal coach Saurasish Lahiri pointed out that a couple of slots are up for grabs.
For the No. 3 spot, it will be a toss-up between two stodgy left-handers with good defensive game — the diminutive Abhishek Raman and the lanky Sudip Chatterjee.
“It’s a tough call as both are quality players,” Lahiri said.
The other position up for grab is the all-rounder’s slot where Sayan Sekhar Mondal, with his hard-hitting batting and good seam-up stuff at close to 130 clicks, is considered a better bet than Writtick Chatterjee, who bowls off-spin and also have a double hundred in first-class cricket.
What will be a slight worry for Bengal is the fact that none of their batters have accumulated 250 runs in the three league games, with only one hundred (114 by Easwaran) in six completed innings.
The top-run getter in the league stages is veteran Anushtup Majumdar (242 runs), who is at the fag end of his career.
However, it is Porel, who has turned out to be an exciting prospect and in his debut, he scored a fine half-century in a 350-run fourth innings chase against Baroda after the team was bowled out for less than 100 in the first innings.
For Bengal, the key will be to counter the two left-arm spinners Shahbaz Nadeem and Anukul Roy, who are seasoned performers. The pace duo of Rahul Shukla and Varun Aaron might not be a big threat, especially with the latter not having played any red-ball games in recent times.
A star-studded Karnataka batting line-up comprising Devdutt Padikkal, Karun Nair, Manish Pandey and till recently India’s opener Mayank Agarwal gives the team a menacing look but they will be up against a quality seam attack from Uttar Pradesh that has stars Mohsin Khan and Yash Dayal in its ranks.
If Karnataka’s batting has a scary look, the bowling is a bit thin on quality compared to the days when R Vinay Kumar, Srinath Aravind and Abhimanyu Mithun would run through opposition sides.
Often the reserve pacer in that line-up, Ronit More is now the leader of the attack and it will be interesting as to how he counters the likes of Rinku Singh, Akshdeep Nath and Priyam Garg.
The match will be played at Alur (1) ground.
Matches to start at 9:30 am.
Karnataka vs UP (Alur 1) Star Sports 1 Live
Bengal vs Jharkhand (Just Cricket Ground) Live Streaming on Hotstar.