Kerala is all set to face a daunting task to replicate their last season’s performance in the upcoming Ranji Trophy 2018-19 season as they are now placed in a tough group B, but captain Sachin Baby is optimistic about his team’s chances in the season starting from November 1.
He also believes that Kerala has the ability to compete with the best in the First-Class tournament, where they will begin their campaign against Hyderabad at Thiruvananthapuram on November 1.
Sachin told Sportstar on Thursday (October 26), “It is a tough group but I think we have the ability to compete with the best. We need to push hard and play consistently well over a period of time as there isn’t any weak team in the Elite group.”
He further added, “It is important for us to start the campaign on a winning note. The first two matches against Hyderabad and Andhra at home are important. We need to win both the matches and then the momentum will be with us when we play away from home. However, we will have one eye on the weather too. Usually, it rains in South India during November and the weather is likely to be fickle in North India so we are hoping that we will get the best of conditions when we play.”
Commenting on team combination, “This team has a heady mix of senior and junior players. We decided to fall back on experienced players since we will be playing against tough opponents. In the Vijay Hazare Trophy, we blooded a few youngsters but they couldn’t seize the opportunity and failed to perform under pressure. I think our strength is going to be our spinners. Though we have good medium pacers, I think we will be playing more on wickets which will aid spinners. Jalaj Saxena, K.C Akshay, and Vinoop S. Manoharan will have a big role with the to play this season. The batting looks solid with Jalaj Saxena, Arun Karthick, Rohan Prem and V.A. Jagadeesh lending experience. Sanju Samson will be the wicketkeeper and I hope he will come good with the bat as well.”
He is also happy with his own form with the bat at the moment and is hoping to replicate in the tournament. Baby signed off by saying, “I made a couple of fifties in Vijay Hazare Trophy. I think we competed well in the tournament. The batting collapse against Andhra and the washed out match against MP spoiled our chances to qualify for the quarterfinals. But there were a lot of positives which we will carry to the Ranji Trophy.”
(Input: Sportstar)
