Kolkata: Manoj Tiwary and his team will feel confident as they gear up to take on Himachal Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy clash at Eden Gardens starting from Wednesday. The Bengal players were seen firing in all cylinders at the practice session today. The unit looked in a jovial mood with the players enjoying in a game of soccer ahead of the net session. The cricketers then underwent stringent practice session with Md Shami, Asoke Dinda, Anustup Majumdar, Aamir Gani and B. Amit bending their backs.
“Bowlers know where to bowl and the batsmen know that it is going to be challenging but are adapting them to the condition. Good news is that we’ll have Mohammed Shami and Asoke Dinda playing in the team and it is going to be comparatively easier to bat in the middle when the Himachal bowlers will be bowling us,” said bowling coach Ranadeb Bose when asked about the emphasis that is being put after the bowling.
The home team will have a fair idea about the conditions as they have been practicing at the Eden Gardens for the last three days. It is expected that the curator will leave some grass keeping in mind that the hosts strength in fast bowling department.
“The good thing about Eden Gardens is you get similar kind of a wicket. Therefore we are practicing on a similar kind of a wicket that we can expect to be playing on during our match,” added Ranadeb when asked about the condition of the pitch.
After practicing in the nets today Bengal skipper Manoj Tiwary said, “We have been practicing for three days on this pitch and there is a nice grass cover on it and it currently has a bit of moisture in it as well. It is a seamer-friendly pitch in the first place. Our bowlers have been training hard in the nets and in a home match our objective is to pick up twenty wickets at the earliest and the bowlers be provided the maximum advantage. The wicket has a lot of swing and the ball is bound to seam and given the amount of moisture present the variations will be much more with the deliveries coming abruptly and rising from the rough. The practice pitch has been similarly adapted like the main pitch and the batsmen have been practicing and gearing up for the same.”