Ranji Trophy: Mumbai look for turnaround

MUMBAI: Mumbai bowlers may have been short of ideas about how to take wickets on flat tracks, but the tinge of green on the CCI wicket will give hope to the hosts to script a turnaround in their Ranji fortunes against Bengal, starting Saturday.
The 39-time champions are winless after three games so far, but Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma probably has the right to bemoan the dead wickets that his side has had to play on.
"We failed to get an outright victory in the last three games, but I feel our bowlers did a good job. We played on flat wickets and there wasn't anything for the bowlers. Restricting Rajasthan to 478, I feel, was commendable. The CCI wicket always offers some bounce and there will be something for the spinners on Day 3 and 4. The wicket looks very hard and there's some grass on it too. There will be something for the fast bowlers as well. This game will be very crucial for us," Rohit said ahead of their Group 'A' encounter against Bengal on Friday.
Mumbai's last game against Hyderabad proved to be a run fest with big knocks from Rohit (112) and Hiken Shah (156) in their first innings. But Hyderabad pummeled the Mumbai bowlers to log three points for taking the first innings lead.
For Mumbai, veteran opening batsman Wasim Jaffer will make a comeback after he missed the first three games due to Haj pilgrimage. Suryakumar Yadav, who suffered a groin injury against Hyderabad, is also fit to play and so is seamer Dhawal Kulkarni. Only Ajit Agarkar will sit out as he hasn't recovered completely from a sore calf suffered during Mumbai's opening game against Railways.
For Bengal, their skipper Manoj Tiwary is back after nursing a wrist injury. Tiwary, who visited the NCA for a check-up after the Gujarat game, watched Bengal get thrashed by Madhya Pradesh from the sidelines. The visitors are fifth on the table with six points behind third-placed Mumbai (on seven points). Bengal frittered away a wonderful opportunity to post an outright win against Gujarat despite having them on the mat. Tiwary, who scored 191 in the game, urged his top four batsmen to consistently produce big knocks.
"We shouldn't have lost against Punjab and Madhya Pradesh… We failed as a batting group. We were in a good position against Gujarat. Against MP too our batsmen came a cropper. Despite winning the toss, our bowlers failed to make much use of the green top. I also missed that game due to my wrist injury. So, our batting has to improve significantly," Tiwary said.
Bengal's Anustup Majumdar is uncertain to play due to an injury but the middle-order will revolve around 'keeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala.