Mumbai vs Bengal: All eyes will be on Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary

Mumbai vs Bengal: All eyes will be on Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary

All eyes will be on Rohit Sharma and Manoj Tiwary when Mumbai take on Bengal in a Group A Ranji Trophy tie at the Brabourne Stadium from Saturday.

Over the last few years, the two have been regarded as the next big thing in Indian cricket. But neither has lived up to his promise or consolidated his place in the Indian team. Now, with the middle-order in the Indian team being inconsistent, the two would be eyeing their chances.

Five years ago, Tiwary, who had an impressive 2006-07 season, was the talking point. He was highly rated for his consistency and aggressive batting. His 94 run knock in the final against Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium against an attack led by Zaheer Khan showed he was made for bigger deeds.

On the other hand, Sharma did not capitalise on his abundant talent, either throwing away his wicket when in line for a big score or just not up to it. He was becoming consistently inconsistent.

Facing each other for the first time in Mumbai since the 2006-07 final, the two are on the same boat with just one task at hand, to impress the selectors. They also have the added responsibility of leading their respective sides.

Sharma seems to be enjoying his role as captain in the absence of Ajit Agarkar. “It is an added responsibility and I am enjoying it,” Sharma said on the match eve. “It will definitely change my batting responsibilities and approach to the game. I am trying to lead from the front. The added responsibility doesn’t mean I will stop playing my shots. It doesn’t change my game at all. But I am more careful now.”

Meanwhile, Tiwary felt he has a responsibility as a senior player. “Being a senior member of the side and a responsible batsman, I try to occupy the crease because all the other batsmen gain a lot of confidence when I am around. It becomes an added responsibility. On the personal front, I have to score big runs in order to get into the Indian team,” Tiwary said.

While the two would be vying for selectors’ attention, the other interesting aspect would be Mumbai’s search for their first outright win this season while Bengal would look to upstage the 39-time champions after two defeats in four games.

The hosts will have the upper hand with the return of batting mainstay Wasim Jaffer. Bengal, on the other hand, will have to do without the services of Ashok Dinda, who is on national duty for the third Test against England.

Squads
Mumbai: Rohit Sharma (C), Wasim Jaffer, Ramesh Powar, Suryakumar Yadav, Avishkar Salvi, Kaustubh Pawar, Abhishek Nayar, Praful Waghela, Hiken Shah, Iqbal Abdullah, Kshemal Waingankar, Dhaval Kulkarni, Ankit Chavan, Aditya Tare (wk), Shardul Thakur
Bengal: Manoj Tiwary (C), Jayojit Basu, Anirban Chatterjee, Arnab Nandi, Veer Pratap Singh, Sourav Sarkar, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Shami Ahmed, Rohan Banerjee, Parthasarathi Bhattacharjee, Subhomoy Das, Anustup Majumdar, Writam Porel, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Iresh Saxena