Played after a Covid break, Ranji Trophy’s league stage is done and the championship will resume after a strategic time out post IPL. Eight teams go through to the next stage, 30 are knocked out.
Players in the Elite Group got 3 games each, compared to 7 earlier, which means fewer cricket opportunities and far less money. Ranji players, without the financial lifeline of annual guaranteed BCCI/IPL contracts, depend on match fees for survival. And when matches reduce from 7
Played after a Covid break, Ranji Trophy’s league stage is done and the championship will resume after a strategic time out post IPL. Eight teams go through to the next stage, 30 are knocked out.
Players in the Elite Group got 3 games each, compared to 7 earlier, which means fewer cricket opportunities and far less money. Ranji players, without the financial lifeline of annual guaranteed BCCI/IPL contracts, depend on match fees for survival. And when matches reduce from 7 to 3, the financial hit is severe.
Interesting trends emerged in the curtailed season. Prominent among them:
Team results/ performance
The stronger teams made the cut with Bengal on top and Mumbai back in the reckoning after five years. MP, UP, Karnataka and Punjab are quality sides but Jharkhand and Uttarakhand sprang a surprise. Saurashtra, the 2020 champions, and Tamil Nadu failed to make it. But the real shock was Delhi—just 2 points from 3 games.
Captains/coaches show
Teams made interesting choices about appointing new leaders. UP was led by Karan Sharma overlooking seniors (Rinku Singh, Akshdeep Nath) and possibly created a world record because he captained a first-class side on debut. Punjab gave the job to Abhishek Sharma, Mumbai preferred Prithvi Shaw (ahead of Rahane) and MP opted for Aditya Shrivastava. Virat Singh of Jharkhand was brilliant—his bold declaration against Delhi resulted in a thrilling last-over win on Day 4.
Coaches Arun Lal (Bengal), Chandrakant Pandit (MP), Surendra Bhave (Punjab), Vijay Dahiya (UP), Amol Muzumdar (Mumbai) and Yere Goud (Karnataka) left their mark, playing a major role in team strategy and selection.
Players in Elite group
Many outstanding performances caught the eye. Dhruv Sheorey, Baba Indrajith, Rohan Kunnummal and Yash Dhull scored 3 hundreds each. The biggest star though was Mumbai’s Sarfaraz Khan, who had a spectacular season scoring 275 against Saurashtra and 165 against Orissa. His career Ranji average now stands at a staggering 77.74. Double hundreds were scored by players who aren’t well known: Saurashtra’s Chirag Jani, Vidharbha’s Ganesh Satish and Bhargav Merai from Gujarat.
Karun Nair, Manish Pandey and Mandeep Singh found form, and Chhattisgarh captain Amandeep Khare ground Delhi into the dust with a monumental, unbeaten 156. MP’s Yash Dubey stood out with 289 against Kerala and much promise was shown by Haryana’s Himanshu Rana (2 hundreds, vs Punjab and Himachal), Gujarat’s wicket-keeping batsman Het Patel and Mumbai’s Armaan Jaffer.
Bowlers struggled on good pitches but left-arm spin prospered with Shahbaz Nadeem, Mayank Mishra, Vikash Mishra and Dharmendra Sinh Jadeja taking a bagful. Bengal all-rounder Shahbaz was consistent and their pace attack (Mukesh, Akash Deep, Ishant Porel) was clearly the best across all teams. Mumbai’s Shams Mulani was the standout bowler with 29 wickets.
Under-19 stars
Dhull made runs, but 2 centuries were scored in dead games, one when nine players got a chance to bowl. Still, runs are runs and the youngster has had a great start to his senior career. His U-19 mates were less successful. Harnoor, Ostwal, Raj Angad Bawa and Nishant Sindhu realised Ranji is tough, but keeper Abishek Porel was excellent for Bengal. Punjab’s Prabhsimran Singh made a hundred on debut, followed by a zero next innings and modest scores after that.
Established stars
All eyes were on Rahane, Pujara and Ishant but they did little to force the selectors to change their minds. Ishant, a veteran of 105 Tests, got one wicket from 2 matches. Wriddhiman Saha wasn’t available. Suresh Raina/Shikhar Dhawan/Amit Mishra/Ambati Rayudu/Kedar Jadhav/ Piyush Chawla/Dinesh Karthik and Robin Uthappa didn’t play red-ball cricket.
Ranji veterans
Jalal Saxena (Kerala) remains an inspirational figure and Paras Dogra (Puducherry) is a domestic champion—this season, his 22nd, he made two hundreds in the Elite Group. Manoj Tiwary, a minister in the TMC government, is crucial to Bengal’s frail middle-order. Pacers Aniket Chowdhary (Rajasthan) and Ishwar Pandey (MP) continue to toil for their teams.
IPL stars
Hardik Pandya is apparently injured but brother Krunal made a brief appearance. Shivam Dube/ Shivam Mavi/Khaleel/Rahul Chahar/Rahul Tewatia/Varun Chakaravarthy were missing. Devdutt Padikkal, Nitish Rana, Abdul Samad and Rahul Tripathy made some runs. Shah Rukh Khan smashed 194 against Delhi. Prasidh Krishna took 15 wickets but Arshdeep Singh and Umran Malik were not so successful.
Interesting stories
The Ranji season threw up great stories, notably the extraordinary courage of Baroda’s Vishnu Solanki, who overcame great personal tragedies. Sreesanth played again after the 2013 IPL spot fixing controversy. Also interesting was the debut of Eden Apple Tom, the 16-year-old Kerala quick.
The Plate division
The highlight was Bihar’s Sakibul Gani making a triple hundred on debut and outstanding contributions by ‘imported’ professionals Taruwar Kohli, Puneet and Chetan Bisht.
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