Kolkata: Bengal probables for Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 met and began the camp for the tournament by maintaining strict COVID-19 protocols on Thursday (December 17) at Jadavpur University Second Campus ground under the supervision of CAB Vision 2020 consultant VVS Laxman and head coach Arun Lal.
25 Bengal probables along with director-cricket operations Joydeep Mukherjee, bowling coach Ranadeb Bose, spin-bowling consultant Utpal Chatterjee and trainer Sanjib Das were present at the training session.
Cricket Association of Bengal Secretary Snehasish Ganguly said, “Pradipta Pramanik will be joining the camp from tomorrow making the number of boys in the camp 26 and the total number to 27. Ishan Porel is undergoing rehab at NCA and will join the camp later.”
The groups for the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament have been announced on Thursday and Bengal coach Arun Lal believes that the teams can’t afford to have even one off-day, “We have got a pretty tough group. We have to play Tamil Nadu, Assam, Odhisa, Jharkhand and Hyderabad.”
“The problem for every team in this tournament is going to be that only one team qualifies from each group and when you have that you can’t have an off day. If you lose one game your chances of qualification are almost finished, so you have to be on top of your game and win all five matches,” Lal said.
“We are preparing well. It’s the same situation for every team. We have started preparation today, we have had a lovely Bengal T20 Challenge tournament where each player got 10 matches to play, so I think we will be well prepapred by the time the tournament starts,” he added.
Starting the practice session with regular warm-ups the players were engaged in lengthy net sessions with special fielding and fitness sessions while Laxman spent hours with the top order batters on the crease as they practiced big hitting.
Bengal skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran said post-training session, “We all are very happy that the domestic season is starting. We have had a good Bengal T20 Challenge tournament where the players got valuable game time. We’re learning a lot under Laxman sir too. The boys are looking forward to some competition.”
“We will be playing the group matches at our home, which is good for us cause we know the conditions here. We are preparing well, hopefully, we’ll have a good tournament too,” he signed off.
