Mumbai, Nov 1: Keen to make their mark against the star-studded Mumbai line-up, the Sanjay Bangar-led Railways team has been training in the city at the Western Railway Ground for the last ten days. However, today morning they practiced alongside their opponents at the Wankhede Stadium. Speaking about their preparation ahead of the match, the Railways’ skipper said, “The boys are batting well and we should be able to put up a good contest.”

“It is good [to play against a star-studded line-up]. If they perform against quality players, the weight increases. So our boys are keen to impress the big guns. We are looking forward to it,” he mentioned.

“It is an excellent thing that Sachin [Tendulkar] and Zaheer [Khan] have made themselves available for this game. Not only will they try to get back into their rhythm for the sterner Tests ahead, but it will also give them an insight into what is happening at the ground level. And they can also probably evaluate whether the standards of Ranji Trophy [matches] have gone up or down. This is also an opportunity for them to look at the talent available. If they play a couple of more games, they will get a wider audience; but even we can’t really complain because they are playing against us and all our boys are wanting to do well against the genius [Tendulkar],” he added.

Speaking about their plans against the 39-time champions, he said, “We will be trying to do things, which are in our control well. If we do that, we should be able to put up a good contest. It doesn’t really matter who the opposition is. We will try and do what we can do best.”

Bangar emphasised that youth is the strength of his team. “You can’t say experience because we have gone through a rebuilding phase and we are nearing the completion of the phase. Except for me and [Murali] Kartik there are hardly any experienced players in the team. We have got a good young team. All are eager to do well. We have got a couple of good quality fast bowlers, so I am pretty sure that over the next two or three days you might be impressed with a few of them,” he explained.

Speaking of his team’s bowling attack, he said, “Anureet Singh, KK [Krishnakant Upadhyay], Hardik Rathod, and Ranjitkumar Mali are our four fast bowlers and out of them we will prefer to play three. We have two left-arm spinners, one is Kartik and another is Ashish Yadav.”

Asked if he had taken a look at the wicket and what he expects of it, the Railways captain said, “The wickets where we practiced were good. It [the Wankhede wicket] also always offers something for everybody. Somebody like Kartik has always done very well here. He has always done well with its turn and bounce. And also it assists seamers in the early part, in the first session and probably some part of the last session; so in between it is a good batting wicket, so it is challenging wicket. Toss is really immaterial because we will have to play really over the next four days.”

The Railways will be playing their home games at a new venue this season. Speaking about the change he said, “Since we come together from all across the country, it's not like we are looking at [the new home] venue as a different venue. We are used to playing at different venues and whatever happens, happens for the best. We have played a long time at Karnail Singh Stadium, there are things that need to be improved there, so this probably just a wake-up call. Things will improve [and] we will be very keen to go back and play at our home ground. In the interim, Bhuvneshwar is an excellent facility that we have had and that type of wicket will also suit our strength. All in all we are pretty hopeful of our outcome after this season.”

Expressing his views on the new Ranji Trophy format, he said, “The teams in the Elite Group any way play seven games [now they will play eight]. The other teams who played from the Plate Group [earlier] will probably benefit from this format. Anyway it is excellent opportunity for all our boys to get those extra matches. We are looking forward with optimism.”

“The atmosphere in the team is relaxed and not really trying to force too many things. Playing it like it is any other game,” he concluded.