KOLKATA: Abhimanyu Easwaran is back where it all began for him. The opener will walk into the history books becoming the first cricketer to play a first-class game at a stadium named after him, when on Tuesday he walks out with his Bengal teammates to face Uttarakhand in a Ranji Trophy Elite Group ‘A’ encounter.
Both the Abhimanyu Stadium in Dehradun and the player himself carry the dreams of a passionate cricket lover Ranganathan Parameswaran Easwaran, who had set up ‘Abhimanyu Cricket Academy’ in 1988. Born in 1995, his son, named Abhimanyu grew up playing the game at the academy ground.
Slowly both the academy and his son grew in prominence as Ranganathan, a chartered accountant by profession, expanded the facility into a stadium with a picturesque ground and floodlights. The BCCI too adopted the ground scheduling a number of domestic matches (senior, junior, women and age-group) while Abhimanyu went on to shine for the India ‘A’ side.
Bengal will thus not hesitate to take tips from the ‘home’ boy in the crucial group clash. The hosts are on a high after recording three comprehensive victories in as many matches this season, with two of those coming at this venue.
Abhimanyu, however, is not only conversant with the ground but also with a number of players in the rival camp against whom he played a lot of cricket during his growing-up days.
“Yes, I have practised with a lot of them and I won’t deny it helps. But with extensive video analysis being done now, no one has any distinct advantage as such,” Abhimanyu said, stating that the pitch at his “home stadium” is going to be a “sporting one”.
However, the bowlers are expected to get some early help in the match. Uttarakhand bowlers utilised the conditions well on the first morning to halt Odisha at 213 in the first match and seamer Deepak Dhapola claimed eight wickets to bowl Himachal Pradesh out for 49.
So Abhimanyu will again have to lead from the front after his polished 170 against Nagaland in the last match, with Anushtup Majumder and Manoj Tiwary likely to provide solidity in the middle-order along with Shahbaz Ahmed and wicketkeeper-batter Abhishek Porel.
Bengal seamers Ishan Porel and Akash Deep too will have their task cut out against a well-oiled batting unit led by Uttarakhand skipper Jiwanjot Singh, who has already got more than 300 runs in three matches including a double hundred against Odisha. Former Delhi batter Kunal Chandela is also among runs for them.
With Bengal on 16 points and Uttarakhand on 19, both sides will need to go for the kill in this top-of-the-table clash to strengthen their chances to make the knockouts from this group.
