Gambhir upbeat ahead of Irani clash

Gautam Gambhir will be carrying a huge burden on his young shoulders when he leads Rest of India against Railways, the Ranji Trophy champions, in the Irani Cup cricket tie starting at the Karnail Singh Stadium in New Delhi.

Opening the innings for the Indian Test team has brought him honour, and with it the responsibility of leading a bunch of talented individuals in the country's premier first-class event. Gambhir, 23, approaches his captaincy with a positive attitude. "It is a young side but many of them have played for India," said Gambhir, whose first experience as a captain was when he led the Delhi Under-19 and Under-23 teams. "It is an opportunity for everyone to prove themselves."

As is the case with such ties, Gambhir will have to do a fine balancing act as captain: he would have to aim at stopping the strong Railways from steamrollering his side, while also making sure the players who are in the eye of the selectors are given enough chance to display their talent.

"We will be going for victory, of course. It is the start of the season, if you do well, you will get noticed," was how Gambhir saw the situation. His task was not made any easier with no manager around to facilitate the team's practice and other requirements. At the end of the nets session at the Karnail Singh Stadium, Yashpal Sharma, the North zone selector, had declared himself the manager after a communication from the BCCI.

With the host-appointed manager failing to turn up, the teams went almost without breakfast in the morning before Sharma stepped in to the players' rescue. When the Railways Board finally sorted out the issue and a manager did arrive at the scene, the practice session was almost over.

Problems aside, it will be a crucial match for the likes of Venugopala Rao and Suresh Raina, who were part of the Indian one-day team in Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, to consolidate their position and bolster their Test chances as well.

Railways (probable) 1 Sanjay Bangar (capt), 2 Amit Pagnis, 3 Tejinder Pal Singh, 4 Jai Prakash Yadav, 5 Raja Ali, 6 Yere Goud, 7 Murali Kartik, 8 Sudhir Wankhede (wk), 9 Harvinder Singh, 10 Kulamani Parida, 11 Madan Yadav

Rest of India (probable) 1 Gautam Gambhir (capt), 2 Dhiraj Jadhav, 3 Shikar Dhawan, 4 Venugopal Rao, 5 Suresh Raina, 6 Niraj Patel, 7 Parthiv Patel (wk), 8 Ramesh Powar, 9 Rudra Pratap Singh, 10 Ramakrishnan Ramkumar, 11 Amit Bhandari