Captain Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sudip Gharami, Sumanta Gupta and keeper-batter Abhishek Porel were among those who practised at Eden Gardens since early morning on Sunday under the supervision of head coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla.
Bengal’s emphasis is on batting going into their Ranji Trophy fourth-round clash against Maharashtra, beginning at the Eden on Monday.
Having won all three of their matches so far, Bengal are at the top of Group C with 18 points. But their opponents in this game, Maharashtra, placed second (with 12 points), could pose a challenge to their supremacy.
Bengal’s batting has been a worry, especially in their last couple of games, against Services and Kerala. Thrice Bengal have fallen short of 200 in these two matches.
So, to ensure that the batting group is in a better frame of mind, the team management felt it was necessary to give the key batters a few extra hours’ nets.
Also, with the Eden pitch not having enough grass on it, as per the “instructions” of neutral (BCCI) curator Abhijit Piprode, it isn’t clear how much of a home advantage Bengal will get.
Irrespective of the grass content, Bengal, however, are set to return to the three-pacer, two-spinner combination. Shahbaz Ahmed and the in-form Pradipta Pramanik are likely to be the two spinners. In the pace department, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal appears to be a certainty alongside senior pro Mohammed Shami.
But for the third seamer’s slot, Shami’s younger brother Kaif will have his fitness tested on Monday morning.
Shaw factor
Maharashtra captain Prithvi Shaw, at present out of favour with Team India, has so far aggregated only 115 in five innings, which includes only one fifty-plus (70) innings. Landing in the city on Sunday morning, Shaw made a brief visit to the Eden late during his team’s training session.
The visitors, though, are optimistic about Shaw finding form in this crunch game. “Prithvi is in a good frame of mind. We all know how easy he makes batting look when he gets going. So, hopefully, he will click in this game,” Maharashtra bowling coach Samad Fallah said.