All major names in international cricket will figure for their state sides for the first-ever All India Twenty20 tournament to be held from April 15-21.
MUMBAI: Call it pressure or a conscientious effort to give back to the game after a poor performance at the World Cup; all the major names in international cricket will figure for their state sides who have qualified for the first-ever All India Twenty20 tournament to be held from April 15-21 at two venues simultaneously. The cricket board has not made it compulsory for them to play in the tournament though.
Prominent among them will be Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. The last two will be in action at the Motera Stadium, Ahmedabad.
Both Mumbai and Bengal are in group B after the 10 qualified teams have been divided into two groups. Group A matches will be played at the Wankhede Stadium and Cricket Club of India and the final is also scheduled to be held in Mumbai on April 21. Interestingly, Sourav might play only the last two matches in the four-match round-robin format.
While Amol Mazumdar expectedly will lead a full-strength Mumbai side, Sourav will be playing under a young Manoj Tewari, one of the two near-certainties to make the India squad.
Yere Goud will lead Karnataka with Indian skipper Dravid and Robin Uthappa also in the ranks.
Mumbai matters
Mumbai selection committee and chief national selector Dilip Vengsarkar inked down the names of Tendulkar, Ajit Agarkar and Zaheer Khan for the Mumbai squad along with Wasim Jaffer, Ramesh Powar and the much-touted Rohit Sharma. Missing from the list of names which played in the zonal rounds is all-rounder Abhishek Nair who is out due to injury.
Commenting on Tendulkar’s inclusion, coach Pravin Amre said: “He will open for us. He gives us a bowling option as well. It depends on the wicket but his spin bowling is an added advantage,” Amre said clearly hinting that Tendulkar might finally get to bat at his favourite position.
Team: Amol Muzumdar (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Wasim Jaffer, Rohit Sharma, Vinit Indulkar, Vinayak Samant (wicket keeper), Ramesh Powar, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Nilesh Kulkarni, Musafir Khote, Ajinkya Rahane, Avishkar Salvi, Iqbal Abdullah and Vinayak Mane.
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