Irani Cup: Can Rajasthan put it past formidable Rest?

BANGALORE: That two of the top run-scorers in last season's Ranji Trophy are from Rajasthan, the winning side in 2011-12, is not surprising. What is strange is that both Robin Bist (1034 runs at an average of 86.16) and Vineet Saxena (897 runs @ 52.76) will be turning out for the champions at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday for the Irani Cup even as an India 'A' side is on a tour in New Zealand.
At least in Saxena's case, his being 31 years old may have gone against him but Bist, who is all of 24, can perhaps put the question 'what am I doing here and why I am not in NZ' to Surendra Bhave, the manager-cum-coach of Rest of India, the opposing team in this five-day season opening clash.
Bist, a classy and compact right-hander, can be sure he will not get an answer, not from Bhave, one of the national selectors who is into his last month of his job, or his fellow selectors. What he can do instead is to make best use of this opportunity and start all over again in what will be the last of the Irani Cups that will be played at the beginning of the season, with the ones to follow set to be played at the end of each season.
Bhave, of course, has other headaches too. Choosing the final eleven from the 15 named in the Cheteshwar Pujara-led RoI squad is not going to be easy. Both Pujara and his opposite number, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, may have expressed their preference to play three seamers on this hard surface that has a tinge of green, but can either afford to go in with only one spinner on what is after all still an Indian track? And should RoI go in with a lone spinner, then there won't be a place for Harmeet Singh, touted as one of the more exciting prospects in recent times, for Pragyan Ojha will start as number one.
Should, as Pujara said, the accent shift to the all-rounders then too Bhave will have it tough, as he may not be able to accommodate both Yusuf Pathan and local man Stuart Binny, who ended as the season's fifth-highest run-getter with 742 runs @67.45 (8 matches) while also picking up 20 wickets with his seamers.
Teams (from): Rajasthan: Hrishikesh Kanitkar (capt), Rashmi Ranjan Parida, Aniket Choudhary, Ankit Lamba, Vineet Saxena, Sumit Mathur, Gajendra Singh, Madhur Khatri, Dishant Yagnik (wk), Deepak Chahar, Raman Chahar, Robin Bist, Arjit Gupta, Vaibhav Deshpande, Puneet Yadav. Coach: Chandrakant Pandit
Rest of India: Cheteshwar Pujara (capt), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, S Badrinath, Yusuf Pathan, Stuart Binny, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Umesh Yadav, Abhimanyu Mithun, Parvinder Awana, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ojha, Harmeet Singh.