Vidarbha to take on Assam in opener

Nagpur, Oct

Akshay Wadkar-led Vidarbha will start their campaign against Assam in Group 'A match in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot on Tuesday.

Vidarbha has been clubbed Mumbai, Ranji champs Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Railways, Uttarakhand and north-east’s Assam and Mizoram in Elite Group A.

Last season Wadkar led the team to the semi-finals and this is Vidarba's first assignment under new coach Sanjeev Sharma Sharma played two Tests and 23 One Day Internationals between 1988 and 1997 for India . This season also Vidarbha would like to make their mark in shorter format of white ball cricket. For that all the eyes will be on IPL player explosive wicketkeper batsmann Jitesh Sharma, who did good job for Punjab Kings. The performances of pacer Darshan Nalkande and young Atharwa Taide will be crucial for Vidarbha. India player Umesh Yadav has been named in the team but it is not sure whether he will play or not. He has not joined the squad at Rajkot till the filing of this report.

Teams (from)

Vidarbha: Akshay Wadkar (captain), Atharva Taide (vice-captain), Jitesh Sharma, Aman Mokhade, Siddhesh Wath, Apoorv Wankhade, Shubham Dubey, Aitya Sarwate, Akshay Wakhare, Akshay Karnewar, Lalit Yadav, Yash Thakur, Darshan Nalkande, Harsh Dubey and Umesh Yadav.

Assam: Mrinmoy Dutta (c), Rajjakuddin Ahmed , Roshan Alam , Avinov Choudhury, Denish Das , Rishav Das , Sumit Ghadigaonkar , Rahul Hazarika , Subham Mandal , Mukhtar Hussain , Nihar Narah, Nipan Deka , Riyan Parag , Dharani Rabha , Wasiqur Rahman