Bengal's star player Wriddhiman Saha has left the team. Abhimanyu Easwaran-led Bengal will still start as favourites against Jharkhand with their current form in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinal, starting from Monday.
The trio of Mukesh Kumar, Ishan Porel and Akash Deep 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 for company.
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.
(Inputs from PTI)
