New Format, New HopesVidarbha take on Bengal in Vijay Hazare opener today

 

AFTER a mediocre run in the shortest format at Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, three-time Ranji Trophy champions Vidarbha will take on Bengal in the 50-overs format for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Vidarbha have been placed in Elite Group B and will begin their campaign against the team from Eastern part of India at Sanosara Ground A in Rajkot on Wednesday. With three wins and four losses, Vidarbha had finished fifth in the 8-team Elite Group A in SMAT. They would take to field on the morrow hoping to come out with a better show in the slightly bigger format. Vidarbha have ringed in a few changes, three to be precise, to strengthen the squad. Hard-hitting southpaw batter Shubham Dubey, who missed SMAT due to injury, has been included in the squad.

 

Professional Ravikumar Samarth, in his first year with Vidarbha, who was ignored for the 20-overs tourney, is back in the squad and young off-spinner Ganesh Bhosle are the other two players included in the team. Out of favour India seamer Umesh Yadav and the duo of Varun Bisht and Adhyayan Daga, who made their Vidarbha debut in SMAT, have been left out. The 17-member squad will be led by bowling all-rounder Harsh Dubey. Yash Thakur will be the vice-captain of the team. Both Dubeys, Thakur and seamer Praful Hinge will also use the platform to impress their respective IPL franchisees. It will be a big test of Vidarbha top-order batsmen — Atharva Taide, Dhruv Shorey, Aman Mokhade, Yash Rathod and Samarth as Bengal’s three-pronged seam attack will be led by none other than out of India favour seamer Mohammed Shami. India pacers Akash Deep and Mukesh Kumar make the bowling very formidable. Shami has been in impressive form on the domestic circuit with 36 wickets across formats and enjoyed a strong return to competitive cricket for Bengal following a lengthy injury lay-off. Shami picked up 20 wickets from four Ranji Trophy matches and finished as Bengal’s leading wicket-taker with 16 scalps in SMAT. Except for skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran, and Anustup Majumdar, Bengal have no big names in batting.

 

The other teams in the group are Assam, Baroda, Jammu and Kashmir, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh. THE TEAMS Vidarbha: Harsh Dubey (Captain), Yash Thakur (Vice-Captain), Atharva Taide, Dhruv Shorey, Aman Mokhade, Yash Rathod, Shivam Deshmukh (wk), Akshay Wadkar, Nachiket Bhute, Darshan Nalkande, Yash Kadam, R Samarth, Parth Rekhade, Dipesh Parwani, Praful Hinge, Shubham Dubey, Ganesh Bhosle. Bengal: Abhimanyu Easwaran (Captain), Anustup Majumdar, Abishek Porel (wk), Sudip Gharami, Sumanta Gupta, Sumit Nag (WK), Chandrahas Dash, Shahbaz Ahmed, Karan Lal, Mohammed Shami, Akash Deep, Mukesh Kumar, Sayan Ghosh, Ravi Kumar, Aamir Gani, Vishal Bhati, Ankit Mishra.