Ranji Trophy: After break, Punjab at breaking point

PATIALA: Mandeep Singh-led Punjab face a do-or-die situation when they take on table-topper Andhra in their Ranji Trophy Group A clash at the Dhruv Pandove Stadium from Tuesday.
The home team kicked off its campaign on a promising note - two back-to-back outright victories against Rajasthan and Hyderabad and a first innings lead against defending champions Vidarbha. But then they hit a roadblock, conceding first innings lead against a depleted Delhi and losing two consecutive matches against Kerala and Gujarat.
Andhra, on the other hand, have four wins and two draws in this season.With 27 points, they top the combined group A and B leaderboard.
Punjab coach Munish Bali believes a break in the seventh round was much-needed for his team. "It was a welcome break and gave the boys time to recover. We are now raring to go. We have two home matches and hopefully, we will do well and qualify for the knockouts," Bali told TOI.
Punjab did not have much issues in the bowling department, with pacers Siddharth Kaul and Baltej Singh in a good rhythm. Leg-spinner Mayank Markande has also provided crucial breakthroughs for the team. Gurkeerat Mann too has proved to be more than useful with his off-spin.
For Bali, the concern is batting - the team lost a flurry of wickets in five out of six matches.
Mandeep Singh has scored 619 runs in nine innings with two centuries and four half-centuries. The form of Sanvir Singh and Anmolpreet Singh is a worrying sign for Punjab. Although Sanvir has had a few successes with his medium pace, he is struggling as an opener. In the nine innings, he had crossed 50 only once. On the other hand, Anmolpreet Singh has registered four ducks in nine innings and had one half-century to his name in the season so far.
"Batting is a concern. We are missing Shubman at the top. He is an impact player. We had a few extra batting drills and hopefully, we will see a much better performance from our batsmen in this match," said Bali.
Punjab has added left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar to the squad. He might make his debut because the Patiala pitch has always favoured spin. It won't be a surprise if Punjab play three spinners in the match.
Andhra will be without the service of their skipper Hanuma Vihari and wicketkeeper KS Bharat. Like Shubman, they are also with the India A team in New Zealand.
Stand-in skipper Ricky Bhui is very confident of his team doing well without their star players.
"We won our last match against Kerala without them. It is an opportunity for other players in the squad to take their chance and make most of it," said Bhui.
"We are having a top season so far and thankfully, we are not relying on one or two performances. Everyone is contributing and we just want to keep this momentum," he added.
Squads
Punjab: Mandeep Singh (C), Rohan Marwaha, Abhijeet Garg, Sanvir Singh, Anmolpreet Singh, Anmol Malhotra (WK), Sharad Lumba, Gurkeerat Mann, Abhishek Gupta, Siddharth Kaul, Baltej Singh, Vinay Chaudhary, Harpreet Brar, Krishan Alang and Mayank Markande
Andhra: Ricky Bhui (C), CR Gnaneshwar, Prithvi Raj, S Ashish, Girinath Reddy (WK), Mohammad Rafi, Prasanth Kumar, Karan Shinde, Bodapati Sumanth, KV Sasikanth, UMS Girinath, Jyothi Sai Krishna, Shoaib Md Khan, Cheepurapalli Stephen, Paidikalva Vijaykumar