Kolkata:
Bengal are not intimidated by the presence of K L Rahul in the Karnataka line-up and coach Arun Lal on Friday said they would back their strengths in their Ranji Trophy semifinal.
Fresh from his limited overs exploits in New Zealand where he bagged the Man-of-the-Series award in India’s 5-0 whitewash of the hosts in T20Is, Rahul will look to contribute handsomely in the game, starting on Saturday.
“Cricket is played on the field and not with big names,” Lal said on the eve of the match.
“We generally back our strengths. It could be anybody there. It could be Virat Kohli batting there tomorrow. We are looking forward to it. It will be a good contest.”
With the likes of Rahul, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair and Prasidh Krishna in their ranks, Karnataka start as favourites, but Lal disagreed.
“I think we are the favourites. We have momentum behind us, played some fabulous cricket. We have got quantifiable heroes. Nobody knows about them. We are just getting to hear about them,” he said.
Lal was referring to the likes of Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep and rookie Shahbaz Ahmed, who has sparkled both with bat and ball.
“Tomorrow they could be the finished products. We have 3-4 players who could go on to play for India within a year or so. We are a team on the zoom. The curve is going up,” he said.
Bengal will have a three-pronged pace attack in Porel, Akash Deep and Mukesh Kumar and they were seen bowling short pitched deliveries at the nets.
Asked if that would be their strategy to tackle the likes of Rahul and Pandey, he said: “It’s not going to be the main focus. We have got the skill to bat out the opposition. We are not going to bowl short.
