Irfan Pathan and Yuvraj Singh during a practice session in Cuttack on Wednesday

Cuttack: Emerging and fringe players of the country will battle it out to impress the national selectors as Yuvraj Singh-led India Blue take on Subramaniam Badrinath’s India Red in the opener of the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy here Thursday.

The tournament, which sets the ball rolling for the gruelling Ranji season ahead, would be more than just a competition between the teams as individuals would be vying to make the Team India cut.

For Test-discard Yuvraj, a regular in India’s one-day scheme of things, the two matches against India Red and India Green before the final on Sunday will provide the stylish left-hander another chance to prove that he has overcome his poor run of batting failures since the Sri Lanka series where he had just managed 72 runs from five outings.

Fresh from his second innings 113 in Board President XI’s match against Australia in a four-day practice Test earlier this month, Yuvraj is confident though the elegant left-hander did not practise much with his left-knee strapped.

But Yuvraj has the burden of expectation of leading a side who are the reigning champions and seen as the second best Indian side.

Besides him, India Blue’s batting boasts of the mercurial trio of Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli and Dinesh Kaarthick who will have a very good memory of the last edition at Motera, Ahmedabad where the wicketkeeper-batsman had steered Blue to a six-wicket win over Red with an unbeaten 116.

With Irfan a doubtful starter, having pulled a calf muscle at practice, Blue will have to recharge their pace battery with Ashok Dinda and Pradeep Sangwan at the helm.

Having replaced Amit Mishra, Delhi leg-spinner Chetanya Nanda will take care of the spin department with off-spinner R. Ashwin on a pitch which is seen as a typical bouncy one-day wicket.

A hit in the domestic circuit, Tamil Nadu skipper Badrinath is yet to impress in the international circuit, having played three matches, averaging 19.50. But he will get another chance to catch the selectors’ eye.

With explosive batsmen Rohit Sharma and Manoj Tiwary in the side and leg spinner Piyush Chawla and off-spinner Mohnish Parmar offering variety to the pace attack likely to be led by comeback man Laxmipathy Balaji, Badrinath can hope to give Yuvraj & Co. some moments of darkness under the floodlights at Barabati Stadium here on Thursday.

TEAMS

India Blue (from): Yuvraj Singh (capt.), Ajinkya Rahane, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Kaarthick (vice-capt.), Ravinder Singh, Irfan Pathan, Ashok Dinda, Pradeep Sangwan, Chetanya Nanda, Arjun Yadav, Siddharth Trivedi, R. Ashwin

India Red (from): Subramaniam Badrinath (capt.), M. Vijay, F. Fazal, Manoj Tiwary, Rohit Sharma, Jaydev Shah, Abhishek Nayar, Parthiv Patel, Praveen Kumar, Laxmipathy Balaji, Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar, Mohnish Parmar, Wriddhiman Shah.

Umpires: S.K. Tarapore, S.S. Hazare; TV: Sudhir Asani

Match starts: 2 pm