After a two-year hiatus, the Ranji Trophy is set to return in Indian cricket. India's premier First-Class domestic competition will be played in two phases – the first starting later this month and the knockouts stage after the IPL – and it must have been quite the challenge for the BCCI to schedule a window. But the good news is that the board has successfully pulled it off.
The development comes as a huge respite for the domestic players, who have been hit both professionally and financially. For years, the Ranji Trophy has given Indian cricket superstars, and while the coming season will provide a platform for the next generation of Indian cricketers to shine, it could also see certain veteran cricketers going back to get back some form.
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Speaking of which, BCCI president Sourav Ganguly feels it could be a good idea for India’s under-fire batting duo of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane to go back to playing Ranji Trophy and get some runs. Pujara and Rahane have struggled lately, with their averages dipping and impactful scores being far and few.
During his playing days, Ganguly himself had gone back to playing Ranji Trophy after his ouster from the Indian team in 2005, where he scored heaps of runs and returned stronger, and the former India captain is confident that Rahane and Pujara can get their form back if they choose to go back and play the tournament.
"Yeah, they are very good players. Hopefully, they will go back to Ranji Trophy and score a lot of runs, which I am sure they will. I don’t see any problem [for them to go back to domestic cricket after playing so much international cricket]. Ranji Trophy is a huge tournament, and we have all played the tournament," Ganguly told Sportstar.
{{/usCountry}}"Yeah, they are very good players. Hopefully, they will go back to Ranji Trophy and score a lot of runs, which I am sure they will. I don’t see any problem [for them to go back to domestic cricket after playing so much international cricket]. Ranji Trophy is a huge tournament, and we have all played the tournament," Ganguly told Sportstar.
{{/usCountry}}"So, they, too, will go back there and perform. They have played the tournament in the past when they were only playing Test cricket and were not part of the ODI or limited-overs team. So, that won’t be a problem."
Speaking of the efforts that went into staging Ranji Trophy amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Ganguly admitted it was a challenge to figure a window but at the same time was glad that it all came to a fruition.
"Obviously, we missed one year of Ranji Trophy – the 2020-21 season. It is the most important tournament in India, and we always wanted to organise it. But what the world has seen in the last two years, I don’t think it has happened in anybody's lifetime. So keeping all these things in mind, it was actually a challenge to organise any tournament," added the BCCI chief.
"We organised the Cooch Behar Trophy and there came the third wave. On the first day itself, 50 players contracted the virus. So, it is not easy. But we are lucky that we can still conduct tournaments. We still have our fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly."