Chennai: Desperate to score an outright victory and keep their hopes alive for a spot in the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals, Tamil Nadu are set to roll out a turner for the match against Baroda starting here at the M.A.
Chidambaram Stadium on Friday.
Close on the heels of conceding the first innings lead to Saurashtra in a high-scoring contest, Tamil Nadu -currently placed fifth in Group B with eight points have made their intentions clear: to derive maximum advantage from home conditions. The inclusion of Rahil Shah, the tall left-arm spinner who is one of the highest wicket takers in TNCA first division league, will augur well for the home side if the track assists spinners. Coach W.V . Raman said the composition of the side would be decided only at the last minute and it would be interesting to see whether TN go in with three specialist spinners (Rahil, Aushik Srinivas and Malolan Rangarajan).
Young pacer Aswin Crist could keep his place ahead of J. Koushik.
In place of M. Vijay, who is part of the South Africa touring party, K.B. Arun Karthik is set to open with Abhinav Mukund, the last match's double centurion.
Against Saurashtra, all the top five TN batsmen Abhinav, Vijay, S.Badrinath, B. Aparajith and Dinesh Karthik -scored, at least, a half-century but the lack of venom in bowling remains the home team's biggest concern.
To make matters worse, Tamil Nadu had shot itself in the foot by spilling catches and the lack of sharpness irked Raman. Badrinath, who averages 72.33 this season, missed Friday's practice session with a bout of fever, but the seasoned batsman is expected to be fit for the match.
Skipper L. Balaji is carrying a lot of burden on his ageing shoulders, as the support cast is not consistent enough. The Ranji season has entered a crucial stage and Raman said all the teams are under pressure. “Anything can happen from now. A team with very few points on the board can pick up wins and go on to qualify. The reverse can't be ruled out either. So there is no point in dwelling on the past,“ Raman said.
Baroda, on the other hand, are fresh from an outright victory after a nightmarish start to their Ranji campaign with backto-back defeats at the hands of Uttar Pradesh and Railways. The visitors are placed at lowly seventh with seven points.
Yusuf Pathan is Baroda's stand-in skipper in place of Ambati Rayudu, who is in South Africa with the Indian team. The off-spinning all-rounder scored a match-winning hundred in the last game. India discards Munaf Patel and Irfan Pathan are racing against time to get fit. The onus is on left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt who has taken 15 wickets in five innings.
TEAMS TAMIL NADU: L. Balaji (capt), S. Badrinath (vice capt), Abhinav Mukund, KB Arun Karthik, B.
Aparajith, R. Prasanna, Dinesh Karthik (wk), B.
Indrajith, Vijay Shankar, Malolan Rangarajan, R.
Aushik Srinivas, J. Kaushik, Rahil S Shah, M.Mohammed.
Coach: W.V. Raman.
BARODA: Yusuf Pathan (capt), Aditya Waghmode (vice-capt), Saurabh Wakaskar, Abhimanyu Chauhan. Pinal Shah (wk), Kedar Devdhar, Hardik Pandya, Ketan Panchal, Ketul Patel, Bhargav Bhatt, Utkarsh Patel, Murtuja Vahora, Dhiren Mistry, Gagandeep Singh Natt, Babasafi Khan Pathan.
Coach: Sanath Kumar UMPIRES: Virender Kumar Sharma, Navdeep Singh Sidhu. Match referee: Sunil A Chaturvedi. Third umpire: Abhijit Deshmuk. Live on tv 9:30am Star Sports 2.
