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After winning only one point against Tripura a few days back, Bengal will face Railways in their fourth round match of the Elite Group C contest in the Ranji Trophy 2025-26 at Lalbhai Contractor Stadium in Surat. In the absence of Abhimanyu Easwaran and Abishek Porel, Sudip Gharami will lead the Bengal team, as reported by Sportz Point earlier.
Match details
Match: Railways vs Bengal, Elite Group C, Ranji Trophy 2025-26
Date: 8 November 2025 - 11 November 2025
Venue: Lalbhai Contractor Stadium
Streaming: No streaming available
Spin-friendly pitch might produce a result
With most of the matches of Group C already producing results, Railways would love to take advantage of their conditions and go for an outright win when Bengal will miss stars like Abhimanyu Easwaran, Abishek Porel, Akash Deep, Mohammed Shami, and Mukesh Kumar.
As per the reports, the pitch at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium will be a spin-friendly one, with Railways having spinners like Karn Sharma, the captain, along with Akash Pandey, who has done well for them in the last few seasons. Moreover, Akash Pandey, who is for Bengal, knows most of the Bengal batters as well.
Even Bengal will have Shahbaz Ahmed along with Rahul Prasad, who made his debut in the last match against Tripura last week.
Sudip Gharami to lead Bengal
As we had reported earlier, Sudip Gharami will lead the Bengal side with Abhimanyu Easwaran and Abishek Porel missing the game. Easwaran is in India-A duty, whereas Porel will be in action in the Rising Stars Asia Cup and has left for the Centre of Excellence (COE) before leaving for Qatar.
Gharami has led Bengal in the past in white-ball tournaments last season, where Bengal went on to qualify for the knockouts of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Due to the unavailability of the players, Bengal will now have three captains in the last three games.
Aditya Purohit to make his debut
After Kazi Junaid Saifi’s shocking return to first-class cricket, where he could only add 1 run in three innings (1,0,0), he was released from the squad. Now that makes the case for Aditya Purohit, another left-handed opener, who did well for Adamas Howrah Warriors in BPT20L and club cricket, to make his first-class debut.
Purohit will be opening the innings with captain Sudip Gharami, whereas we can expect Subham Chatterjee to return to the playing XI in the middle order. Shakir Habib Gandhi, who scored 95 in the first inning against Tripura, will continue as their No.3 along with Anustup Majumdar at 4.
Subham and Sumnata can bat anywhere in 5 or 6 with Shahbaz Ahmed at 7.
In the bowling department, Rahul Prasad will continue as the second spinner of the team, with Mohammed Kaif giving depth in the pace bowling department. Ishan Porel will be playing his 50th first-class match with Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal coming back in the lineup, replacing Mohammed Shami.
Points table situtation
Bengal are currently at No.3 with 13 points, while Railways are at No.5 with four points.
| Team | M | W | L | D | PT | Quotient |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HRYNA | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 1.446 |
| SVCS | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 1.439 |
| BENG | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 1.338 |
| UKHND | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 0.857 |
| RLYS | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 0.987 |
| GUJ | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0.798 |
| TPURA | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0.635 |
| ASSAM | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0.721 |
Bengal’s possible XI
Aditya Purohit, Sudip Gharami (C), Shakir Habib Gandhi (wk), Anustup Majumdar, Subham Chatterjee, Sumanta Gupta, Shahbaz Ahmed, Rahul Prasad, Suraj Sindhu Jaiswal, Mohammed Kaif, Ishan Porel.