Intriguing battles in store in Group B of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy

The Pandya brothers are part of Baroda’s camp. The likes of M. Shahrukh Khan, B. Sai Sudharsan and Varun Chakravarthy are helming Tamil Nadu’s campaign. Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi will hope to sparkle for Gujarat. Karnataka is banking on the experience of Mayank Agarwal and Manish Pandey. Saurashtra is always there or thereabouts when it comes to the business end of domestic competitions.

In essence, many intriguing battles should be in store in Group B of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy over the next two weeks. The matches in this group, which features eight teams, will be held across two venues in Indore — the Holkar Stadium and Emerald Heights International School ground.

The other teams in this group are Uttarakhand, Tripura and Sikkim. Though these are relatively lightweight on paper, the fickle nature of the T20 format allows for some unexpected results.

Tamil Nadu begins its campaign on Saturday (November 23, 2024) morning with a clash against Tripura at the Holkar Stadium. Later at the same venue, Baroda, led by Krunal Pandya, will take on Axar’s Gujarat. Karnataka’s opening game is versus Uttarakhand at the Emerald Heights International School ground.

For Shahrukh Khan, who is leading Tamil Nadu for the first time, this is an opportunity to showcase another dimension as a cricketer. Asked whether adjusting to the shortest format after playing in the Ranji Trophy till a week ago was somewhat of a challenge for domestic players, Shahrukh said: “Everybody has played enough white-ball cricket in this team. Shifting from white ball to red ball is a lot tougher than the other way around. Everyone understands what they need to do in preparation.”

The 29-year-old didn’t want to get drawn into assessing his team’s chances of going the distance. “It is more about how you can manage phases of the game as players. If you think about winning the trophy even before the tournament, you are not going to perform to the best of your ability,” he said.