India Blue takes on India Red in the opener

For the few die-hard fans who turned up at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy stadium here, venue of the Paytm Prof. Deodhar Trophy limited-overs cricket tournament from Saturday, the sight of India Test discard Harbhajan Singh bowling well in the nets clearly rekindled memories of his glorious past. And, when he leads India Blue in its first match against India Red on Saturday, it is quite natural that the team looks to him to play a decisive role. More importantly, a fit Harbhajan looked impressive and clearly in the mood to serve a reminder that he is not yet a spent force. India Blue which will be without the services of the injured star batsman Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer, who has been summoned for National duty as stand-by for the Dharamshala Test against Australia, has a competent bowling attack with the likes of Siddharth Kaul, Shardul Thakur, Pankaj Kumar Rao and Prasidh Krishna backed by the slow bowlers Shahbaz Nadeem and Harbhajan Singh. In batting, the Blue team has seasoned players such as Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Mandeep Singh, hard-hitting allrounder Krunal Pandya and wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant. In a change of line-up, Mayank Agarwal has been moved from India Red team to India Blue. India Red is led by Parthiv Patel, who should not be faulted if he is wondering what more he has to do in domestic cricket to book a permanent slot in the Indian team. A struggling Shikhar Dhawan should be surely itching for a couple of big scores to be back in the reckoning for the National team. Clean-hitting Ishank Jaggi, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Manish Pandey are all capable of coming up with some explosive knocks for India Red. In bowling, pacers Ashoke Dinda, Dhawal Kulkarni, left-armer Kulwant Khejroliya, tipped as one of the best prospects, are expected to provide early breakthroughs to set the stage for the experienced spinner Axar Patel to seize the opportunities. In-form Karthik On the other hand, Tamil Nadu, the newly-crowned Vijay Hazare Trophy champion, should bank once again on the in-form wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, who was the lead performer in that championship. Openers Ganga Sridhar Raju and Kaushik Gandhi hold the key to Tamil Nadu campaign on pitches, which Senior national selection committee chairman M.S.K. Prasad feels should have good bounce and good for batting too. Interestingly, Tamil Nadu, without B. Aparajith and Aswin Crist who will playing for India in the Emerging Teams Cup in Bangladesh, preferred to train at Vizianagaram on Friday and in bowling left-arm spinner Rahil Shah and leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin could well be tested in these conditions. And, the biggest motivation for all the contenders to stake their claim stems from the fact that is the last major 50-overs tournament before the Champions Trophy in England. The teams (from): India Blue: Harbhajan Singh (capt.), Mandeep Singh, Mayank Agarwal, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Rishabh Pant (wk), Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Shahbaz Nadeem, Siddarth Kaul, Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna, Pankaj Rao and Ruturaj Gaikwad.

India Red: Parthiv Patel (capt. & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Ishank Jaggi, Gurkeerat Mann, Axar Patel, Akshay Karnewar, Ashoke Dinda, Kulwant Khejroliya, Dhawal Kulkarni, Govinda Poddar, Sreevats Goswami, Chama Milind and Harpreeth Singh Bhatia.