(From top) Tarjinder Singh, Amit Sinha, Deepak Sharma and Shiv Shankar Roy

Guwahati, Nov. 24: The Assam Cricket Association (ACA) is desperately trying to strengthen the state team’s batting order by bringing in Tarjinder Singh and Amit Sinha into the side for the Ranji Trophy plate group league match against Tripura, to be played here from December 1 to 4.

The ACA move was prompted by Assam’s lacklustre performance in the group so far. The state team is now languishing at the bottom of the Group A tally with only four points in their kitty from three matches played so far.

In the team named late last evening, middle order batsmen Deepak Sharma and Shiv Shankar Roy were dropped from the side and replaced by Singh and Sinha who have been performing consistently in the recent C.K. Nayudu Trophy under-22 tournament.

Sharma has been out of form since the beginning of the current season and failed to impress in any of the five innings he played.

Against Rajasthan at NF Railway Stadium here, he scored 10 and 23 and against Goa he was out for only two runs. Back home against Jharkhand at Nehru Stadium here, Sharma made five and 14.

On the other hand, Roy, who was fielded against Jharkhand here after completing his under-19 team assignment where he scored 15 and 0, has been relieved of Ranji duty in view of his selection as a national probable for the under-19 World Cup team along with Krishna Das. Roy and Das will have to attend the national camp at Bangalore from mid-December.

Openers Parvez Aziz, Dheeraj Jadhav and wicketkeeper Kunal Saikia are the only batsmen who have been impressive so far in the season. Skipper Amol Muzumdar, too, has been struggling with the bat throughout the last three matches.

“The middle order has been struggling and I hope we will overcome the hitch by the next match,” Muzumdar said after the match against Jharkhand here on Friday.

Assam will have slog it out in the remaining two matches, particularly against Tripura who are high on morale leading the Group A tally with nine points, in their home turf for outright victories to be in contention for the knockouts. Assam will meet Vidarbha in their last league encounter here from December 8 to 11.

After conceding an outright victory to Rajasthan in the first home match here, Assam shared a point each with Goa at Margao after the rain-affected match ended in a draw and clinched three points by virtue of a first innings lead against Jharkhand here last week.

The squad: Amol Muzumdar (capt), Dhiraj Goswami (vc), Kunal Saikia (wk), Dheeraj Jadhav, Parvez Aziz, Tarjinder Singh, Amit Sinha, Swarupam Purkayastha, Sairaj Bahutule, Arlen Konwar, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Sujoy Tarafdar, Ranjit Mali, Abhijit Singha Roy and Rajdeep Das.

Coaches: Subhrajit Saikia and Subhadeep Ghosh;

Manager: Munindra Nath Saikia.