Excelsior Sports Correspondent
KOLKATA, Feb 27: Formidable Jammu and Kashmir will be enjoying a slight edge over Mohd Kaif led Chhattisgarh in their second outing of the Group-D match of the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy, being hosted by Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), under the aegis of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), here tomorrow.
While Chhattisgarh, which is playing in their debut season in Vijay Hazare Trophy, suffered a heavy thrashing against Mahendra Singh Dhoni led Jharkhand in their first match on the other day, Jammu and Kashmir on the other hand suffered a narrow defeat in an evenly contested first match of the season against strong S. Badrinath led Hyderabad.
Jammu and Kashmir have a good number of in form batsmen in Shubham Khajuria, Parvez Rasool, Ian Dev Singh and Ahmed Banday to support their cause, the debutant team of Chhattisgarh will heavily be banking on their skipper Mohd Kaif and wicketkeeper batsman Manoj Singh in the batting department. J&K also have the likes of explosive Manzoor Dar and wicketkeeper Puneet Bisht in their ranks.
On the bowling front, Jammu and Kashmir possess quality medium pacers in Ramdayal Punia, Mohd Mudhasir and Umar Nazir, supported by military medium Manzoor Dar, besides having the services of experienced off-spinner and skipper Parvez Rasool, Chhattisgarh, though have a good number of talented bowlers in their kitty, but it is yet to be seen as to how they perform at the higher levels.
The surfaces in Kolkata, whether it is Eden Gardens, Kalyani or any other ground, are believed to be batting friendly in this season of the year and it will be interesting to see bowlers hitting good areas on better batting wickets.
However, cricket being the game of glorious uncertainties, noting can be predicted, until the last ball is bowled. So, come tomorrow and see the result.
SQUADS:
Jammu & Kashmir : Parvez Rasool (Captain), Ian Dev Singh (Vice Captain), Ramdayal Punia, Umar Nazir, Shubham Khajuria, Zahoor Sofi, Ahmed Banday, Amir Aziz, Manik Gupta, Puneet Bisht (WK), Manzoor Dar, Mohd Muddasir, Mehjoor Ali, Aditya Pratap Singh, Pranav Gupta, Vishwajeet Singh, Owais Shah and Anshuman Singh.
Chhattisgarh: Mohd Kaif (Captain), Pankaj Kumar Rao, Shubham Aggarwal, Ashutosh Singh, Vivek Borker, Abhimanyu Chauhan, Avnish Daliwal, Manoj Singh (WK), Amandeep Khare, Shourab Khairwal, Omkar Verma, Sumit, Suresh Rao Ruikar, Shahnawaz Hussain and Shubham Thakur.
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