INAUGURAL edition’s table toppers Bharat Rangers will take on Orange Tigers in their opening match of the Vidarbha Premier League Season 2 on Tuesday evening at VCA’s Jamtha International Stadium. Bharat Rangers, led by Atharva Taide, are raring to go for the opening salvo and will be aiming to deliver a much better performance than last season where they lost to Neco Master Blaster to bow out of the tournament. However, this year the team is fully geared up for seven matches they would be playing in the league phase. As per the format, all teams will play against the other team once and allotted two teams twice in the league round. Bharat Rangers’ campaign begins against Orange Tigers, the team which made it to the playoffs last season. Bharat Rangers have a strong batting line-up with opener-captain Taide and Danish Malewar opening the innings. Taide and Malewar both have played IPL and will use that experience in this tournament. Malewar represented Mumbai Indians this season and though he could not make much of an impact, he cannot be overlooked.

 

He will aim to give Bharat Rangers a solid start. The team also boasts of Varun Bisht, all-rounders Manan Agrawal, Nachiket Bhute, Aditya Sarvate to name a few. Jagjot Sasan will be handy in the middle with his batting. He will also be an important cog in the bowling department with his gentle spin. The bowling department will have to be on its toes when they deal with the Orange Tigers batting line-up which includes domestic red ball run machine Yash Rathod at the helm. The hard-hitting batter will be eager to dominate the white ball cricket this season. Bharat Rangers’ bowling will be spearheaded by Bhute, Shubham Kapse, Agrawal, Sarvate and Sasan. As for Orange Tigers, they are well equipped with some quality cricketers. Vidarbha pro Dhruv Shorey, Akshay Karnewar, Rohit Binkar, Vishesh Ram Tiwari, who fetched a handsome amount in the auction and Mandar Mahale, who all have ability to clear the boundary with ease. Tigers got a boost with the inclusion of seamer Aditya Thakare in their side. They also have Shantanu Chikhale in the spin department. In an afternoon game, India Warriors will meet Nagpur Heroz.