Duleep Trophy 2016, Match 2 Preview: India Red looks to keep momentum going

The second match of the 2016 edition of the Duleep Trophy will see India Red take on India Blue at the Greater Noida. India Red will clearly have the edge entering the match following their impressive win in the first encounter of the competition against India Green. However, India Blue will be doing all they can to stop their high-flying opposition.

Pitch Conditions

The Greater Noida wicket proved to be an absolute delight for the seamers as the likes of Nathu Singh and Sandeep Sharma picked the lion’s share of the wickets. However, what transpired in the following days saw the batsmen take the front seat as they began to score runs rather freely in the third and the fourth innings. Spin, however, is yet to be tested in the match.

Team Analysis

India Red

As mentioned earlier, India Red will certainly be on a high after clinching a win in the first match of the tournament. However, they will only know all too well to underestimate their opposition as they make an attempt to secure their place in the final of this historic occasion of the Duleep Trophy. In spite of this, some of the batsmen have failed to fire in the recent matches such as Yuvraj Singh will be hoping to fire.

In spite of this, the spotlight will firmly be on Abhinav Mukund and Nathu Singh. Mukund smashed a fifty and a hundred in each innings while Nathu Singh got the pink ball to do the talking. While the likes of Murugan Ashwin sit on the bench, it would be highly unlikely that there would be a change in the playing XI.

India Blue

India Blue is quite clearly the strongest side in the competition on paper. Of all the players in the side, Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Shardul Thakur, and Cheteshwar Pujara have been a few names who have been associated with the Indian team in recent years. Although India Red have indeed won their match thus far, India Blue will be a supremely difficult proposition.

The spotlight at the moment will be on Shardul Thakur. The 25-year old accompanied the Indian team to West Indies. However, he did not get a game as the Indians cruised to a 2-0 win in the series. With the pink ball swinging in all directions, it is clear that Thakur will certainly be licking his lips to get his hands on the newest form of Test Cricket as soon as possible.

Also read – Sourav Ganguly always backed me: Yuvraj Singh

Playing XI (Probable)

India Red: Yuvraj Singh (C), KS Bharat (WK), Abhinav Mukund, Sudip Chatterjee, Ankush Bains, Gurkeerat Singh, Arun Karthik/Nitish Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishwar Pandey, Nathu Singh, Anureet Singh

India Blue: Gautam Gambhir (C), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Cheteshwar Pujara, Mayank Agarwal, Baba Aparajith, Siddesh Lad, Krishna Das/Sheldon Jackson, Parvez Rasool, Shardul Thakur/Pankaj Singh, Karn Sharma, Mohit Sharma

Telecast on Star Sports 3

Match starts at 14:00 IST

StAttack:

1. All matches played with the pink ball have churned out results thus far. There has been an extremely small percentage of matches that has ended in a draw.

2. Mohit Sharma needs 5 wickets to complete 100 First-class wickets. Similarly, Karn Sharma requires 3 wickets to complete 100 wickets.

3. Cheteshwar Pujara needs 216 runs to complete 10000 runs in First-class cricket. Whether he achieves the feat remains to be seen.