New Delhi: Bolstered by the presence of regular skipper Ayush Badoni, Delhi will not settle for anything less than an outright victory against a spirited Jammu and Kashmir in a Rani Trophy group D encounter, which will also be their last home game of the season.
Having failed to record outright wins against Himachal Pradesh (3 points) and Puducherry (1 point), Delhi’s campaign could be massively derailed if they can’t improve from current fifth position in the eight-team table.
It is understood that under-pressure Delhi team management wants a rank turner for the game but with BCCI’s convention of neutral curators for domestic tournament, the degree of turn on offer might not be much taking the underlying moisture into account.
With two very potent seam and swing bowlers in Auqib Nabi and Umar Nazir Mir operating in tandem, the Delhi batting line-up will face its first proper test against a quality attack, which it hadn’t encountered in previous three games (Hyderabad, HP and Puducherry).
For Delhi, skipper Badoni comes back at his usual number four slot for one game before he again leaves for India A’s List A series against South Africa A.
In the bowling department, seamer Sumit Kumar Beniwal will make way for left-arm spinner Mannan Bhardwaj, who had previously done well for Delhi U-23 in the ongoing CK Nayudu tournament.
With some turn on offer, head coach Sarandeep would be punting heavily on his three spinners — left-arm orthodox Sumit Mathur, Bhardwaj and off-spinner Hrithik Shokeen.
With Navdeep Saini yet to recover from his bout of flu, Money Grewal and Simarjeet Singh will handle the pace department.
They will have their task cut out against a batting line-up that has veteran skipper Paras Dogra and seasoned Shubham Khajuria ready to take the attack back to the opposition camp.
However, it is the batting unit that needs to fire unlike last match when they managed only 294 on a good batting surface.
Opener Sanat Sangwan, who is currently leading the batting charts with 568 runs after three games will like to continue his good form. He and fellow opener Arpit Rana added 321 runs for the opening stand but in the second innings when there was little consequence.
A lot would depend on skipper Badoni, who would need to contribute more than those attractive 40s and keeper Anuj Rawat, one of the senior most players, whose first-class average of less than 30 after 37 games is an eyesore.
