Manoj Tiwary had led from the front to ensure Bengal a draw in the last match against Karnataka and will be in charge once again against Saurashtra at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday as regular captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla was left out after failing a fitness test.

Bengal’s batting order will look more respectable with Sourav Ganguly and Rohan Gavaskar returning. Rohan Banerjee, fresh from his century against Karnataka, will be an automatic choice to open with Arindam Das, followed by Deep Dasgupta, Tiwary, Ganguly, Gavaskar and Wriddhiman Saha. Bengal are also expected to go with three seamers and one spinner on a wicket, which Saurashtra captain Jaydev Shah described as “result-oriented”.

Saurashtra, on their part, will love to bat out their opponents and take Bengal’s bowlers to task with Cheteshwar Pujara, Sitanshu Kotak and Ravindra Jadeja in the team. Coach Debu Mitra, however, kept a low profile. “Bengal appear to be a better side than us,” he said. He rued the fact that his team failed to earn an outright victory against Maharashtra. But Pujara, returning from a double hundred, can be the difference between the two sides.