Under the leadership of new captain Anustup Majumdar, the season gets underway for Bengal when they face Odisha in their Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy opener at the JU Salt Lake campus ground on Sunday.

The Ishan Kishan-led Jharkhand face Tamil Nadu and Assam take on Hyderabad in the day’s other matches to be held at Eden Gardens.

Preparation-wise, Bengal are in a good space, having had a relatively long camp where VVS Laxman — CAB Vision Project batting consultant — was also present for a few days. Importantly, the players had good game time as well, courtesy the Bengal T20 Challenge, which helped unearth promising cricketers, some of whom have been included in the squad.

Besides, the guys have also responded well to the bio-bubble challenges, and head coach Arun Lal is certainly optimistic of a successful campaign. The team combination, though, will be finalised on Sunday morning and Lal hinted there could be a new name or two in the XI.

At the moment, the only thing that appears to be final regarding the XI is the opening combination of Sreevats Goswami and Vivek Singh.

“We are looking for a team with a blend of youth and experience. In the Bengal T20 Challenge, we did see players like Kaif Ahmed, Suvankar Bal do really well and they do deserve to get their share of chances.

“I would rather say that we have a reserve bench which is probably as strong as our first XI,” Lal told The Telegraph on Saturday evening.

It would also be interesting to see how Anustup fares now that he has the additional responsibility of a captain. And to speak of the individual from whom he took over — Abhimanyu Easwaran — it remains to be seen if he will be included in the XI or whether the team management prefers someone who’s ideal for the shortest format.

“We have some very fine options as well. Abhimanyu himself has worked on his game. We need to try and find the right combination.”