Punjab pin hopes on batting, Assam aim to build on promotion

Sixth in Group B with two wins and three losses out of eight matches

Traditionally one of the stronger units in domestic cricket, Punjab were the semi-finalists in 2013-14 but slumped to the bottom half of Group B last year, winning two of their first three matches and then proceeding to lose their last two. Punjab are known to bank on their batting but that turned out to be one of their major worries last season. They crossed 400 only once in 12 completed innings, were made to follow-on in consecutive matches by Rajasthan and Gujarat, and ended the tournament by being bundled out for 88 while chasing 179.

This time too they will pin their hopes on a batting line-up boasting names such as Yuvraj Singh, Gurkeerat Singh, Jiwanjot Singh, Mandeep Singh and Manan Vohra. Yuvraj had a prolific Ranji campaign last time, averaging 56 with three consecutive hundreds and two fifties, and finshed just behind Gurkeerat's tally of 677. Opener Jiwanjot would have to look further back, to the 2013-14 season when he amassed 802 runs, to bring back some confidence at the top of the order.

The pace attack, which gets assistance from the pitches in the winter, is even more feeble this time. Sandeep Sharma, their highest wicket-taker last season, is injured, leaving much of the responsibility on Siddarth Kaul's shoulders, who was second behind Sandeep with 26 wickets last season. A cause of concern would be that no other Punjab bowler took more than 11 wickets. Their spin cupboard looks rather bare and they will be without Harbhajan Singh for the first two matches.

Siddarth Kaul has less than 30 first-class matches to his name and the task of leading the pace attack will be handed to him. His 26 wickets last season came at an average of 23.61 and he was the only Punjab player to take two five-fors. Coach Arun Sharma says Siddarth won't be hunting for wickets all on his own, with the squad containing good bench strength in terms of pace bowlers.

Punjab's spin attack will be in focus since Harbhajan is not the force he was in his prime, particularly in the longer format. Once he is back after the T20Is against South Africa, he will have for support legspinner Sarabjit Ladda and left-arm spinner Varun Khanna, who have 64 and nine first-class wickets respectively.

Arun Sharma is back as the coach after two years to replace Bhupinder Singh, who is now a selector. The remaining support staff includes fielding coach Harminder Pannu, physio Ravi Raghuvanshi and trainer Sandeep Kharwar.

Punjab held a 15-day off-season camp before holding the inter-district tournaments at Under-16, Under-19 and Under-23 levels that featured four-day matches. The coach and selectors relied on these tournaments to pick the younger members of the squad.

Punjab are among the few teams to have not been involved in pre-season transfers. But they will miss out on captain Harbhajan's services for the first two matches since he is in India's T20 squad to face South Africa, and Yuvraj will lead in his absence. An in-form Gurkeerat will play the first match but will miss the next three since he will be with the India ODI team. Pacer Sandeep's back pain has ruled him out of the first two matches and VRV Singh is still struggling with a back injury. Varun Khanna has made a comeback after last playing a first-class match in 2009 and the only uncapped player in the squad is opening batsman Pargat Singh, who was picked after scoring heavily in the inter-district tournament.

Jiwanjot Singh, Manan Vohra, Uday Kaul (wk), Mandeep Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Gurkeerat Singh, Gitansh Khera (wk), Himanshu Chawla, Sidharth Kaul, Brainder Sran, Sarabjit Ladda, Varun Khanna, Maninder Singh, Pargat Singh, Deepak Bansal, Mayank Sidhana. Stand-bys: Karan Goel, Ravinder Singh, Rajwinder Golu, Gaurav Puri, Taruwar Kohli, Aarush Sabbarwal.

We have a good mixture in the squad, there is experience and the youngsters have also played a couple of seasons. Overall it's a balanced side. There are four senior players, three spinners and a strong batting line-up.
Coach Arun Sharma

After topping Group C, they bowed out in the quarter-finals against eventual champions Karnataka, on the basis of a first-innings deficit.

After finishing second-last in Group C in the 2013-14 season, Assam staged a remarkable resurgence in the 2014-15 season, topping the group with five wins out of eight games, a win tally that only Delhi matched in the league stages.

Last year's results ended a five-year struggle in the Plate league and the goals for this season are clear - the same positive mindset, and a clear focus on victories and an eventual place in the knock-outs. Coach Sanath Kumar stressed that he wants the team to steer clear of the survival mindset that can often hinder teams that find themselves promoted from the lower league into the top two groups. "Normally what happens with most of the teams when they get promoted to the upper league, their only thinking is how to survive. That's a normal mindset. That's one thing I made clear to them: don't get into the survival mode. We have to be very aggressive - how we played cricket last season, we will play the same way this season. Our aim is to win and to qualify for knock-outs," Kumar told ESPNcricinfo.

To that extent, there aren't too many changes from the side that played last season, with the notable exception of batsman Dheeraj Jadhav, who moved to Goa as a professional, after Assam declined to renew his contract. With Jadhav's departure, Assam have picked Gokul Sharma as captain, and have roped in Amit Verma as one of their professional players. Kumar says that the problem of a lack of consistent competitive cricket before the season has also been addressed with a number of pre-season practice games.

Amit Verma played as a professional for Kerala last season, and finished as the second-highest run-getter and leading wicket-taker. He will be expected to take on a similar role in Assam and Kumar said Verma's legspin would add much in value to the main spin attack comprising offspinner Swarupam Purkayastha and left-arm spinner J Syed Mohammad. "One more spinner coming into the side makes a huge difference for us. He's an allrounder and that's a huge advantage for us now," Kumar said.

Where Verma can expect to play a supplementary role in the bowling attack, Swarupam Purkayastha will once again be required to take the lead. Making a comeback in 2014-15, the offspinner had a breakthrough season, topping the wicket charts among spinners with 36 wickets, which included five-fors in five successive innings. This season could also see him take more responsibility with the bat as Assam might try him out at a slot higher than the No. 7 position he usually bats at.

Sanath Kumar (head coach), Subhadeep Ghosh (assistant coach), Binod Jain (physiotherapist, who has had previous experience with Karnataka) and Nishant Thakur (trainer, previous experience with Punjab).

Apart from Verma's selection, the other major inclusion in the squad is that of uncapped allrounder Bikash Chetri, who bowls left-arm spin. The run-scoring responsibilities will once again rest on their top-scorer from last season Tarjinder Singh, while Gokul, who scored a fifty and a century in the quarter-final against Karnataka to cap off a middling season, will also look to lead by example with the bat.

Apart from the Buchi Babu tournament, Assam's cricketers have played a few practice games against Karnataka in Bangalore, a match between sides formed from within the squad, and a practice game against Tripura.

Gokul Sharma (capt), Arun Karthik, Abu Nechim, Amit Verma, Bikash Chetri, Arup Das, Krishna Das, Pritam Das, Pallavkumar Das, Rishav Das, Swarupam Purkayastha, Sibsankar Roy, Kunal Saikia (wk), Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad, Tarjinder Singh.

"I told them not to worry about winning and losing, as long as you were giving your 100% and you were backing yourself, I will back you. I made it clear to them that anything outside the field is my problem. And after that they really started performing."
Coach Sanath Kumar on the turnaround last season