Cuttack: Subhranshu Senapati will lead the 15-member Odisha side in the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 cricket tournament which will start February 21. Odisha are in Group D along with Bengal, Haryana, Karnataka, Mizoram, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The group matches will end March 2.
Anurag Sarangi will be Senapati’s deputy and the team have seniors like Govind Poddar and Biplab Samantray.
It is indeed a tough group for Odisha as there are a number of heavyweight teams like Karnataka, Bengal and Haryana. However, the advantage of the T20 format is that on a given day an underdog can upset the favourites and Senapati will certainly want that to happen on a regular basis.
Odisha have a very good fast bowling line-up headed by Suryakant Pradhan. However, if they are to qualify for the knockout stages of the tournament, the batsmen will have to come good.
The squad: Sekhar Senapati (captain), Anurag Sarangi (vice-captain), Sandeep Patnaik, Swastik Samal, Govind Poddar, Biplab Samantray, Aravind Singh, Rajesh Dhupar (wicket-keeper), Abhishek Rout, Suryakant Pradhan, Rajesh Mohanty, Debabrat Pradhan, Sarbeswar Mohanty, Papu Ray, and Subham Nayak
PNN