India Seniors to take on India A in Challenger opener

The seventh edition of the Hero Honda NKP Salve Challenger Series will commence at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Monday with India Seniors taking on India A in a day night fixture. The Challenger Series, which was launched in 1994-95 has been a regular feature in the Indian cricket calendar. The opener promises to be a good match with everyone playing for a place in the national side.

India Seniors skipper Sourav Ganguly believes that the tournament would be a good opportunity for all the talent in the country. Yuvraj Singh, who does not figure in the national probables list, could well take this as an opportunity to prove a thing or two.

Debashish Mohanty, who has had a brilliant domestic season, teams up with Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan. Vikram Rathour will keep wickets in place of Vijay Dahiya who has a bruised finger. Hemang Badani, Virendra Sehwag and SS Das add to the Senior team's batting strength. The selectors will watch VVS Laxman keenly, for he has had a remarkable time with the bat since last season cracking ten first class centuries in ten matches. Sunil Joshi and Ashish Kapoor are the only specialist spinners in the side.

The India A side looks weak on paper. India vice captain Rahul Dravid leads the relatively young side. The team has local lads S Sriram and S Ramesh and they will be added attractions. The big draw has to be Nayan Mongia, who is trying to get back his place in the national side. Now that Ganguly has seemingly given Dahiya his approval over Mongia, there will be a lot of pressure on Mongia to do exceedingly well.

Ritender Sodhi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, and Venkatesh Prasad will also have to produce the goods, as they are all in contention for a place in the Indian One-Day team. All eyes will be on the local boy WD Balaji Rao, who could get a nod from the selectors if he does well in the tournament. Rao bowls leg-spin and India is desperately looking for wrist spinning options due to the non-availability of Anil Kumble. Rahul Sanghvi, the left arm spinner from Delhi is also on trial. Ajit Agarkar is perhaps the one player in the side other than Dravid, who is a certainty in the Indian side.

In the inaugural season, India Seniors won the title and remained champions till 1997-98. The next season, India A and B were declared joint winners. Last season India Seniors regained the trophy. The winners of the tournament this year will receive Rs 2.5 lakh, the runners-up Rs 1.20 lakh and the third placed team Rs 50,000. All the four matches will be played from 2.30 pm to 10.30 pm. They will be telecast live on Doordarshan.

The umpires for the tournament are K Hariharan, SC Cupta, SK Tarapore and S Lakshmanan. The match referee is former Karnataka batsman PR Ashokanand.