Confident Rajasthan welcome Bengal on a seam-friendly track

It will be a battle of pacers as two-time Ranji Trophy champions Rajasthan led by old warhorse Hrishikesh Kanitkar take on a Laxmi Ratan Shukla's gritty Bengal side in a group B encounter of the Ranji Trophy at a seamer-friendly Sawai Man Singh Stadium here tomorrow.
Rajasthan suffered an innings defeat in an away game against Saurashtra in their opening encounter.
On the otherhand, Bengal were unlucky as their match against Baroda was abandoned without a ball being bowled with groundsmen failing to prepare the Eden Gardens in time despite bright sunshine during four days of the match after heavy downpour before that.

During this time of the year, the Jaipur track proves conducive for seam bowling as Rajasthan have seasoned Pankaj Singh who knows the art of picking wickets at the domestic level. He will have the burly left-arm seamer Aniket Chaudhary and young Rituraj Singh for company.
However the track could suit the visitors as well with India discard Ashoke Dinda along with veteran Shib Shankar Paul will like to extract any juice available from track in case Shukla wins the toss and decides to field.
Swing bowler Manojit Ghosh is likely make his first-class debut pipping another veteran bowler Sourav Sarkar as the third seamer.

Manojit and Shib Shankar are likely to be preferred alongside Dinda as both impressed during team's pre-season tour of Haryana.
The only spinner in the side will be off-spinner all-rounder Sourashis Lahiri who is more than a capable batsman with first-class century to his credit.
"Since the pitch has a bit of grass, we feel that Sourashis' batting ability will come in handy as there is little that a left-arm spinner (Iresh Saxena) can do on such a track," a member of the Bengal team management told PTI today.