Having put their campaign back on track with a convincing win against Uttar Pradesh, 40-time champions Mumbai will take on an out-of-sorts Bengal in a group league encounter of the Ranji Trophy cricket tournament, here today.
Although its early days in the tournament, Mumbai with 7 points from three games are in fourth position due to a shade inferior run-rate of +0.924 compared to Tamil Nadu's +0.928.
Bengal started their campaign with three points against Baroda before it went completely off-track when they lost by 9 wickets to defending champions Karnataka in the last game.
Laxmi Ratan Shukla's boys are languishing at the second last place although they have played a match less than their opponents.
It will be another game that will be dictated by which team is better equipped to handle the seamer-friendly Eden Gardens. Bengal batsmen have showed their inability against swing bowling as well as their inefficiency in polishing off the tail.
With veteran medium pacer Shib Shankar Paul dropped, there is a chance that young swing bowler Pritam Chakraborty will make his first-class debut sharing the new ball alongside Ashoke Dinda. Chakraborty is known in Kolkata maidans for his ability to bowl marathon spells.
The choice for third seamer will be between veteran inswing bowler Sourav Sarkar, who is known for his wicket-taking ability with new ball or young turk Veer Pratap Singh.
Bengal's batting will depend on the trio of Manoj Tiwary, Sudeep Chatterjee and Laxmi Ratan Shukla.
For Manoj, who has not performed in the first three innings of Ranji Trophy, the Mumbai match will be an important one considering that Indian team for the tri-series will be announced shortly.
