Bengal captain Rohan Gavaskar with his counterpart J. Arun Kumar at the Jadavpur University Salt Lake campus on Saturday. Pictures by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: Last season Bengal had gone out proclaiming that their strength was in the batting. But they faltered, just about managing to keep their berth in the Ranji Trophy Elite Group. This season the batting seems no different, but coach Karsan Ghavri feels Bengal has another weapon to bank on, the seamers.

Ghavri projects Shib Shankar Paul, Ranadeb Bose, Sabir Ali and Laxmi Ratan Shukla as those who could be depended upon in their first match versus Karnataka starting at the Jadavpur University?s Salt Lake campus Sunday. But he will have to use them on a wicket that the coach himself feels in a ?batsman?s paradise.?

?It seems a hard wicket, and the ball is expected to come onto the batsmen well,? he said. ?So, despite the batting bias, the seamers can make good use of the early dew and inflict damage.? Even then, if the toss is won, neither Ghavri nor Karnataka coach K. Jaswant will field. ?We will bat first,? was the common opinion. ?Anything above 400 would be a formidable total on a wicket which looks a batsman?s paradise,? Ghavri said.

Both coach and skipper Rohan Gavaskar were initially worried at the news that Paul?s arrival might be delayed because his air ticket hasn?t yet been confirmed. However, efforts at the top level ensured his presence.

[Our Special Correspondent adds from Mumbai: Apparently, Paul had gone to the airport in Mumbai this morning and had found all flights overbooked for a number of days. He was put up in a nearby hotel. Later Team India skipper Sourav Ganguly was contacted who made the arrangements for Paul?s availing of an evening flight to Calcutta.]

Last season, when these two teams faced each other in Mandya, Bengal were made to follow-on and ultimately managed a draw. ?This time we will try to get the first innings lead and then try to win,? Ghavri said. Ghavri and Gavaskar, though, admitted that the absence of veteran Utpal Chatterjee was being felt. ?Now our duty is to support newcomer Murtaza Lodhgar (also a left-arm spinner),? Gavaskar said. Deep Dasgupta, apart from standing behind the stumps, is also a batting mainstay for the hosts. It has been learnt that Deep himself had wanted to come lower down the order at No. 5 and that has been agreed upon. ?But we want to keep our batting order flexible and may alter in any match if required,? said the captain.

Karnataka would like to cash in on Bengal?s batting fragility. ?They have a pretty good side, but we will have to take advantage of their weakness,? Jaswant remarked.

The visitors also seem to be banking on medium pacers. They have a three-pronged seam attack ? Dodda Ganesh, Stuart Binny and N. C. Aiyappa (Venkatesh Prasad opted out a month back). They also have two seasoned campaigners in Sunil Joshi and Vijay Bharadwaj.

According to Jaswant, Karnataka don?t want any slip-ups this time, after narrowly missing the semi-final berth last time (they finished third in the group on run-quotient, Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad finishing ahead, all on 15 points, and Bengal finishing fourth with nine points).

?We will try to bring Team India?s stand-in skipper Rahul Dravid, but don?t know whether he will be able to make it,? coach said. Later it was learnt that Dravid is unlikely to make it.

Jaswant said their batting has been boosted by the addition of S. Somasunder. The opener had been playing for Kerala in the last two editions of the Ranji Trophy. ?We have got him back this season strengthening the batting,? Jaswant said. ?The side is a blend of youth and experience.?

LIKELY TEAMS

Bengal: Arindam Das, Nikhil Haldipur, Devang Gandhi, Rohan Gavaskar, Deep Dasgupta, Sanjib Sanyal, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Sourashish Lahiri, Murtaza Lodhgar, Ranadeb Bose/Sabbir Ali, Shib Shankar Paul.

Karnataka: J. Arun Kumar, S. Somasunder, Rowland Barrington, Shyam Ponnappa, Vijay Bharadwaj, Stuart Binny, Sunil Joshi, Tilak Naidu, Dodda Ganesh, Udit Patel, N. C. Aiyappa/R. Vinay Kumar.

Umpires: BA Jamula (Mumbai), Amish Saheba (Gujarat). Match Referee: Sunil Chaturvedi (UP).