Bengal will take on Karnataka in a crucial Ranji Trophy match while Mumbai play Himachal at home. Read previews.

Bengal and Karnataka to play at Mysore

A depleted Bengal sans former skipper Saurav Ganguly will take on Karnataka in their Ranji Trophy Super league match at the Gangotri Glades Platinum Jubilee Grounds on Tuesday.

Bengal will go into the four-day game without the services of Ganguly, who opted out of the tie. Even Laskhmi Ratan Shukla looks doubtful as the Bengal skipper is suffering from a muscle injury and would take a call Tuesday morning.

"Shukla has a muscle chasm. We worked on him Monday at the nets. But we will take a call only Tuesday," said Bengal coach Roger Binny.

Karnataka too would be without Rahul Dravid, who has been the mainstay of their inexperienced batting and is in ominous form.

Karnataka have eight points so far, while Bengal have six and a victory here could help either team to consolidate their position in securing a place in the knockout stage.

The match will be an interesting contest between the Karnataka and Bengal fast bowlers on a sporting wicket which assists pace and bounce.

The yolk of the Bengal pace attack will be thrust on Ranadeb Bose's shoulders. The strapping quick has a competent partner in Ashok Dinda who could be tricky on this surface, which has produced two results in three first class matches.

Karnataka also have a sharp and accurate pace trio in R Vinay Kumar, who returned with career best figures of eight for 32 against Delhi, Abhimanyu Mithun and S Aravind.

Mithun has been a revelation, bagging 11 wickets, including a hat trick on his first class debut against Uttar Pradesh at Meerut. Left arm seamer S Arvind also impressed during his five-wicket against Delhi in the second innings at the Roshnara grounds.

In the batting department, KB Pawan and Manish Pandey, who hit an impressive 194 in the season-opener against UP, have been amongst runs, but all over the hosts have been rather inconsistent.

And without Dravid, the onus will be on senior batsman Robin Uthappa to put up his hand and bat responsibly to shore Karnataka's batting.

Mumbai vs Himachal Pradesh to play at Mumbai

Emboldened with the return of three key players, hosts Mumbai would strive to register their first outright win in the season when they take on Himachal Pradesh in a Ranji Trophy Elite Group A match commencing Tuesday at the Bandra Kurla Complex ground.

Top-order batsmen Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma and all-rounder Abhishek Nair, who were in the Board President's XI squad for the washed out practice match against visiting Sri Lanka team, have returned back to the fold.

However, Mumbai would still miss the service of India pace spearhead Zaheer Khan, who is busy on national duty in the ongoing Test match against Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad.

In both the previous matches -- against Punjab and Orissa, Mumbai had allowed the opponents to crawl back into the match and later were forced to split the points.

Against Punjab, they failed to scalp the last three wickets and had to satisfy with three points despite taking a huge first innings lead of 212. In their next outing, rain played spoilsport as even the first innings of both the teams could not be completed.

On the other hand, the visitors' story was not much different as they too, like Mumbai, have bagged four points from two matches.

Chasing a target of 168 to win in first match against Hyderabad, Himachal could manage only 136-8 before the match ended in a draw, while they had to settle for one point after rain ensured that their away tie against Railways remain incomplete.

"The way the boys, especially the bowlers, have been performing, I am confident that we can win this game," said Karnataka coach Sanath Kumar.