Bengal on a mission to win Vijay Hazare without Shami

CVeNsVDUYAARjAZ
Mohammed Shami is yet to be fully fit. File Pic

Kolkata: Bengal will leave Kolkata to play the quarter-final of Vijay Hazare Trophy against Maharashtra without their ace pacer Mohammed Shami. Earlier he was not been selected in the 15 men squad too, as he is still doing his rehab at the NCC in Bengaluru.

According to the sources of Bengal Team management, they don’t have any doubt on Shami’s caliber but they want to give more time to Shami because if they force him to play with an injury it might put his cricketing career in danger. He is an asset of the Indian Cricket Team and the team management want him to be fully fit first. If Shami thinks that he can bowl his full quota of ten overs and can do batting and fielding, first he have to get his fit certificate from the NCA. After that Shami can directly join the Bengal squad from Bengaluru. If he fails to get a fit certificate from NCA, Bengal will play without him in the quarter-final tie against Kedar Jadav’s Maharashtra on March 15.

Bengal will leave Kolkata on Monday to face the heavyweight Maharashtra. Players like Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Zole are a part of this side and Bengal is expected to face a tough fight from them.

In the Group stage Bengal had won five out of six matches. Skipper Manoj Tiwary lauded his bowlers for their brilliant performance but warned the batsmen that they have to contribute too for the team as the bowlers can’t help a side to win all the matches.” Our bowlers had bowled brilliantly in the group stages but in the knock-outs the batsmen have to contribute too for the side. We cannot depend only on our bowlers as they can’t help you to win all the matches. We have to play as a team where everybody will contribute for the side. If we lose this time there is no possibility of returning back,” said Manoj.

Bengal played their group matches at Chennai and now they will play at Delhi where the wicket is much different from Chennai. Manoj is well aware of Delhi’s climate and pitch condition. He added,” Our team have played a lot of Ranji Trophy and limited overs matches at Delhi. We know how the pitch behaves here and we have the fire power to capitalize on that pitch. I think everybody have understand that it is a must win game for us and I have faith on my boys.”

According to Bengal gaffer Sairaj Bahutule, this is the time for the boys to give their best for the team.”We had started well in the Ranji Trophy but unfortunately lost our momentum after not getting a chance to play the Gujarat match due to fog. After that our boys played brilliantly in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T-20 tournament. East Zone had won the All India Zonal tournament under the leadership of Manoj Tiwray. In the group stage we had won our five out of six matches and now we have to continue this winning habit. It will be great for me as well as the team if our team can win a Trophy at the end of the season,” said Sairaj.