Eighteen players have been called up for a trial camp on the eve of Assam's Ranji Trophy pre-quarterfinal tie against Karnataka from 10-14 Mar 2001. The five-day clash will be played at the Nehru Stadium in Guwahati. Assam put in a creditable show in the East Zone league, finishing runners-up to Orissa with 19 points, and pushing traditional supremos Bengal to third place. In four games, they beat Bihar and Tripura by an innings, drew with Bengal, and lost to Orissa.

Skipper Zakaria Zuffri currently heads the run aggregate with 268 runs while opener Parag Kumar Das tops the averages at 51.8. Assam have a strong bowling line-up with left arm spinner Sukhbinder Singh who grabbed 20 wickets at 11.45 being the standout performer.

Another left arm spinner Sunil Subramaniam, formerly of Tamil Nadu, completed 250 wickets in the competition earlier this season and seamer Javed Zaman's efforts were rewarded with a place in the India A squad against the touring Australians at Nagpur last month. Assam are up against a strong Karnataka team led by Venkatesh Prasad which includes four former India players.

The probables: Zakaria Zuffri (captain), Sumit Ranjan Das, Rajesh Borah, SB Saikia, S Ghosh, Javed Zaman, Sunil Subramaniam, S Ganesh Kumar, Parag Das, Gautam Dutta, Arup Sarma, Sukhvinder Singh, Vinayak Samant (wicket-keeper), MJV Ingty, Bachan Singh, Mrigen Talukdar, PJ Das, Nandlal Mahato.

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