CHENNAI: Recovering what has been lost won’t be easy but Ajinkya Rahane won’t go back to his “process driven” ways as he looks to lead the star-studded West Zone against North East in the opening Duleep Trophy. The game starts on Thursday.
The Indian domestic cricket season begins with the revival of the Duleep Trophy, which returns to its regional format as proceedings begin in the two quarter-final matches.
There could not have been a bigger mismatch between the two sides as West has claimed the batting order with names like skipper Rahane, Prithvi Shaw, the talented Yashasvi Jaiswal, KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer and Rahul Tripathi, who recently toured Were. The Zimbabwe team was with the Indian team.
But the focus will be on Rahane, who will certainly make a last-ditch effort to make a comeback into the Test side after being dropped from the Test side after two years of poor performances earlier this year.
“Look, I believe in following my procedures. Right now my focus is on the Duleep Trophy and doing well for the West Zone team and we will see what happens in the future.”
For him, it’s like taking each match as it comes.
“Playing one game at a time … coming back from injury, focusing on what’s at hand rather than the future. Looking forward to doing well,” he said in response to a question whether he sees this as the first opportunity to work towards a comeback.
He said it is good that the Duleep Trophy has returned to the zonal format and added that it has given opportunities to the domestic players.
“When I last played (Duleep Trophy) in 2009-2010, it was in the zonal format. When you play zonal (format), a lot of players get a chance. I have always believed that you need to give importance to domestic cricket, Ranji and Duleep. It is great that all the zones are participating and it is a good sign,” Rahane said.
With the captain, Shaw and Jaiswal can score big scores and the North-East bowlers will have to work hard to stop them.
Domestic legend Jaydev Unadkat is part of a formidable bowling attack that also includes Baroda pacer Atit Seth and Saurashtra’s Chirag Jani.
The mighty West Zone side is expected to carry a lot of guns for their opponents which includes players from North East Zone and Plate teams.
Duleep Trophy Schedule: QF: West Zone vs North East Zone (at Chennai), East Zone vs North Zone (at Puducherry).
Teams (from): West Zone: Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Tamor (WK), Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Rahul Tripathi, Satyajit Bachhav, Het Patel, Chintan Gaza, Jaydev Unadkat, Chirag Jani, Atheet Seth.
North East Zone: Al Basheed Mohamed, Ankur Malik, Techi Doria, Rongsen Jonathan, Khrewitso Kanes, Kishan Lyngdoh, L Kishan Singha, Bisworjit Konthoujam, G Lalbiakwela, Techi Neri, Deepu Sangma, Rex Rajkumar, Ashish Thapa, Hoketo Zhimomi (Captain) , Bobby Jothansanga.
North East region in a fight for equality
,
In Puducherry, East will face North in what appears to be an equally matched competition on paper. Veteran Manoj Tiwari leads the men of the East with a mix of experience and youth.
A veteran of many battles, Tiwary would like to lead from the front in the tournament returning to the home scene after a gap of three years.
However, the team will miss the top-order batsman Abhimanyu Easwaran, who is part of the team. India Team ‘A’ playing New Zealand, they have enough firepower to score a big total and have a varied bowling attack.
On the other hand, the north, led by Mandeep Singh, includes Yash Dhul, who captained the Indian team in the Under-19s. World Cup win earlier this year. After a stellar start to Dhull’s first-class career, his performance will be closely watched.
The team includes several experienced names with Navdeep Saini and Siddharth Kaul likely to lead the bowling attack.
Teams: East Zone: Manoj Tiwary (Captain), Virat Singh (Vice-Captain), Nazim Siddiqui, Sudip Kumar Gharami, Shantanu Mishra, Anustup Majumdar, Riyan Parag, Kumar Kushagra, Abhishek Porel (WK), Shahbaz Ahmed, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ishaan Porel, Akash Deep, Mukhtar Hussain, Mani Shankar Mursingh.
North Zone: Yash Dhull, Dhruv Shourie, Manan Vohra, Mandeep Singh (Captain), Himanshu Rana, Akash Vashisht, Anmol Malhotra, Mayank Dagar, Pulkit Narang, Navdeep Saini, Siddharth Kaul, Jagjit Singh, Nishant Sindhu, Kamran Iqbal, Vikas Mishra .
get the latest cricket news, Schedule And cricket live score Here