NAGPUR, 7 OCT: Injuries to key players and the Board of Control for Cricket in India's obsessive interest in the Twenty20 Champions League imply the N K P Salve Challenger Trophy here, beginning at the VCA Jamtha Stadium here tomorrow, will be a damp squib.
Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Irfan Pathan, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag and Rohit Sharma are some of the prominent cricketers who are not in it.
Dravid will be with the Royal Challengers, Bangalore; Sehwag and Gambhir will represent the Delhi Daredevils, and Rohit Sharma will be on duty for the Deccan Chargers in the inaugural Champions League.
Yuvraj and Irfan are out because of injuries, while Tendulkar rests before a seven-match One-Day Internationals series against Australia.
Maharashtra's Ameya Shrikhande will replace Yuvraj, who was the India Red team skipper. The team will be led by S Badrinath. Vikramjeet Malik replaces India Green's Irfan Pathan.
Abhinav Mukund, fresh from his century in the Irani Trophy for the Rest of India against Mumbai, has been rewarded with a place in the India Blue side, supplanting Sachin Tendulkar. Saurabh Tiwary will replace India Green's Manoj Tiwari, summoned by the Delhi Daredevils.
The presence of the national selectors, Mr Surendra Bhave (India Red), Mr Narendra Hirwani (India Green) and Mr Raja Venkat (India Blue) as managers should encourage fringe players like Murli Vijay, Tanmay Srivastava, Ravindra Jadeja, Badrinath and Dhawal Kulkarni. India Red play India Green tomorrow.
Bengal team
Laxmi Ratan Shukla (in photo) was on Wednesday named captain of a 15-member Bengal Twenty20 squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (East Zone) competition to be held in Dhanbad from 20 October. Bengal selectors also picked 24 "probables" for the Ranji Trophy, leaving a slot open for Sourav Ganguly. Bengal play Assam in their first zonal Twenty20 match on 21 October.
Twenty20 Squad:
Laxmi Ratan Shukla (C), Deep Dasgupta, Rohan Gavaskar, Shreevats Goswami, Wriddhiman Saha, Manoj Tiwary, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Dibyendu Chakraborty, Ranadeb Bose, Ashok Dinda, Sourav Sarkar, Nilkantha Das, Iresh Saxena, Shib Sagar Singh, Sourashish Lahiri.
Ranji probables:
Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Deep Dasgupta, Rohan Gavaskar, Shreevats Goswami, Wriddhiman Saha, Manoj Tiwary, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Dibyendu Chakraborty, Ranadeb Bose, Ashok Dinda, Sourav Sarkar, Nilkantha Das, Iresh Saxena, Shib Sagar Singh, Sourashish Lahiri, Arnab Nandi, Avik Chowdhury, Rohan Banerjee, Arindam Das, Ritam Kundu, Soumya Pakray, Arindam Ghosh, Eklakh Ahmed and Anustup Majumdar.