With the Ranji Trophy one-day season round the corner, Punjab captain Pankaj Dharmani has called for an “improved performance” from his players.
Speaking on the sidelines of a warm-up session at the Dhruv Pandove Stadium, the right-hand batsman said he hoped to lead by example and take his team to the title.
The chances of this happening are especially bright, he added, given the fact that the majority of the stars would be available for the season and that three of the matches would be home matches to be played in Punjab.
Dharmani added that with the World Cup just round the corner and the india A team selection for the England tour to be done this season, the matches would be more keenly fought. “i believe that every player would eye a position in these squads and would try to perform better in these matches so that the selectors pick them,” stated Dharmani who was recently promoted as a scale two officer in the State Bank of Patiala.
The skipper added that the team would hopefully be able to avail of the services of Dinesh Mongia and Vikram Rajvir (VRV) Singh subject to availability from national duty and that would be beneficial to them.
“i feel that taking on teams like Delhi and Haryana would be good as they have a competitive bunch of players and the matches with them would be very interesting. Players like Mongia and VRV would be very useful here given their experience”, he told the Sportline.
As far as the team combination was concerned, Dharmani said that they would go for a blend of youth and experience and hopefully this would lead them to victory.
“Besides, donning the Punjab outfit is every player’s dream and i am sure they will perform for the state”, he opined.
On his personal goal, Dharmani expressed hope that he would perform well with the bat and continue his form from the last Ranji season where he was one of the leading run-getters.
“i will try to mix caution with aggression. But ultimately the important thing is how the unit performs because at the end of the day, it is a team game,” he added.
Fixtures: Punjab-Haryana on February 10, Delhi-Punjab on February 12, Delhi-Himachal Pradesh on February 14, Delhi-Haryana on February 16 and Himachal Pradesh-Punjab on February 18.
Posted By Staff Reporter
in Punjab News
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