Abhimanyu, who is on duty in India and has missed Ranji’s first two matches, traveled from Dhaka to join Bengal’s training session on Monday morning.
Abhimanyu Easwaran’s return will give Bengal a big boost in their Ranji Trophy Group A game against Nagaland starting here at the Nagaland Cricket Association Stadium on Tuesday.
Abhimanyu, who has been on duty in India and has missed his first two matches in Ranji, has flown in from Dhaka to attend his session in training for Bengal on Monday morning. The prolific opener, which Bangladesh performed well when leading India A, could play a key role in his side keen to maximize points against relatively weak hosts.
Bengal are looking forward to maintaining their positive momentum after winning against Uttar his Pradesh and Himachal his Pradesh leading by a total of 7 points in the first innings. Bengal continue to be led by experienced Manoj Tiwari.
Expect tourists to crush the enemy under a pile of executions, as some of the major thugs, including centurions Anustup Majumdar and Sudip Gharami, Tiwary and Shahbaz Ahmed, have been executed.
The Bengal pacesetters, led by Ishan Polel and Akash Deep, are doing well and should pose some serious problems for the Nagaland batsmen.
The spin department may be enhanced by the left-arm spinner, Pradipta Pramanik.
“If you win the pitch, you can hit it. The pitch can help the spinner on the third day and he can help the spinner on the fourth day,” said Bengal coach Lakshmi Ratanshukla. Having lost their first two games at home to Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland have been realistic in their approach and have scheduled their final home games accordingly.
“We don’t have big goals in mind. We have small goals like playing well in one or two sessions and we work hard to achieve them,” said Nagaland coach R.X. Muraridal.
Forecasts of rain on Monday and more rain on Tuesday could affect team selection and the outcome of the match.