Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Duleep Trophy Beckons

The domestic season is certainly picking up. After a lack-lustre Irani Trophy came the unexpected hit - the Challenger Trophy and now 2 high-profile Duleep Trophy Games begin tomorrow.

First, East vs North at Rajkot. Nothing can be bigger of course than the fact that SG will be leading East. This is one of the sternest tests for him. A good score here would put him in with a great chance of making an immediate comeback to the Indian team. But he will face stiff challenge from the North Zone bowlers - VRV Singh (one of the fastest in the country), Gagandeep Singh, Joginder Sharma and Amit Mishra who apparently did well last season but was surprisingly overlooked for the Challenger. For the North, the batting is also quite formidable with Ricky, Dhawan and Mongia being the lead performers.

In the South v West game, the big battle will be the one between Zaheer and Laxman - both overlooked for the SL series. Again a good showing here could mean a quick recall for either.But there are other people to watch out for - Utthapa (oh what an innings that was), Balaji (the forgotten man of Indian cricket), Neeraj Patel and Dheeraj Jadhav.

All in all 2 fascinating contests on the cards. This is another great benefit of dropping the senior players every now and then. The domestic circuit will get a new lease of life.

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