Champions Delhi have the edge

Yuvraj misses practice, likely to play Punjab’s Ranji opener against Aakash Chopra & Co.

For someone like Yuvraj Singh, who has played 23 Test matches in the last five years, Sourav Ganguly’s retirement should mean one thing: his time has come. At the moment, though, the man himself is missing from action.

While Punjab have been camping in the Capital two days ahead of their Ranji Super League opener against defending champions Delhi on Monday, the left-hander, curiously, hasn’t been attending team’s training sessions. Without disclosing his whereabouts or the reason why he has been missing training, team coach Arun Kumar Sharma said Yuvraj would play in the match.

“Yuvi was supposed to join the training today, but now I think he will come to the team meeting directly,” Sharma said, “He will definitely play tomorrow.”

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If he does, it will lend some balance to the tie in which Delhi appear to have the edge, at least on paper. “It is the first match of the season, so it is early to suggest that we are a better side than them,” Delhi coach Vijay Dahiya put it modestly. “Having said that, I am hoping for a good result,” he added.

Both sides were happy with the bounce and carry from the practice wicket at the Roshanara ground which, they said, looked similar to the one they would play come Monday. “It looks like a hard bouncy wicket. I think it will have something for the pacers and assist batsmen,” Sharma said. Dahiya echoed similar sentiments.

“Because the pitch looks true the importance of toss will not be decisive. Whichever team play well will win,” Dahiya added.

There won’t be many changes to the Delhi’s side that played the Irani Cup. Aditya Jain, Shikhar Dhawan and fit-again Ashish Nehra will replace Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Ishant Sharma, who are on nation duty.

‘No need for change’

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Delhi’s new Ranji skipper Aakash Chopra has said he doesn’t want to change or tweak anything from the way the team played last year. “I don’t think we need to change anything from the last Ranji season,” Chopra said.

“I don’t want the team to lose intensity during these matches. We need to work for each other even during difficult periods,” he said during the team meeting on Sunday. Delhi’s new captain, however, added that there would be performance review after each session. “We’ll have targets this time,” he added.