The red-ball dilemma: Do India selectors think Ranji runs matter?

IPL seems to be helping players break into the national team setup but then where does that leave top first-class cricketers?

Of the top 13 run-getters in the 2022/23 Ranji Trophy season, there isn’t a single player who features in India’s squad for the World Test Championship final against Australia at The Oval in London from June 7-11. The batter who was 14th on the list of highest run-getters was Ajinkya Rahane.

Despite a heap of runs in the Ranji Trophy in recent years, Sarfaraz, for instance, has perhaps underwhelmed against a higher grade of bowling. (PTI)

When Rahane earned a recall on April 25 for the marquee clash, the selection panel cited his vast experience of 82 Tests and a robust Ranji season where he amassed 634 runs at an average of 57.63. But his IPL form — he struck an unbeaten 71 off 29 balls for CSK against KKR two days before selection – must have also been of some significance. Because if he was on the radar of the selectors before the IPL season, he wouldn’t have been dropped from BCCI’s list of contracted players on March 25.

While Rahane’s inclusion has its merits considering his Test know-how, it is a glance at the standbys for the WTC final that is likely to cause heartache to Ranji Trophy’s top performers. It includes Ruturaj Gaikwad and Suryakumar Yadav, both of whom featured sparingly last season in the country’s premier first-class competition. While Gaikwad was involved in four games for Maharashtra, Yadav played twice for Mumbai. And neither of them has an utterly compelling first-class record to boast. Yet, if any of the incumbent batters in the Test squad gets injured ahead of the WTC final, it is one of them who will be taking guard against the Aussies.

Where does this leave players like Sarfaraz Khan, Arpit Vasavada, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyank Panchal? And others who churn out runs dutifully in the Ranji Trophy season after season?

“T20s can't be a basis for selection in 50-over cricket or Test cricket. That’s not a good thing. Selection based on IPL should be done only for T20s. Agar Ranji mein performance karne ke baad kuch nahi mile, toh faayda kya hai? Then, there is no point in scoring runs in domestic cricket. People will leave Ranji Trophy and focus on white-ball cricket and IPL,” says Bengal’s 24-year-old batter Sudip Gharami, who was sixth-highest run-scorer in last season’s Ranji Trophy with 803 runs in ten matches.

Gujarat opener Panchal, 33, has been through the domestic grind for a decade-and-a-half now, but the closest he has come to an India appearance was in 2021 when he replaced an injured Rohit Sharma on the tour of South Africa. He’s still maintaining a high benchmark, aggregating 583 runs in just five games at an average of 116.6 in the 2022/23 Ranji campaign. Barring Sarfaraz, the aforementioned players don’t have IPL deals and face a tough time jostling for the limelight.

As Panchal sees it, the solution is to become an all-format player.

“It is difficult. I am also going through that situation now,” laments Panchal. “For me, the challenge is to evolve given that cricket is evolving. All three formats are important right now. If others are performing in three formats and you are performing in only Ranji Trophy, then the others will get a chance before you. There is so much focus on strike rate now even in Test cricket. If you look at England, they are playing a different brand of Test cricket. So, the longer format is also heading in that direction. Earlier, a strike rate of 30 or 40 was fine. Now the demand is for the strike rate to be around 60 or 70.”

Saurashtra’s Arpit Vasavada — the second-highest run-getter in the 2022/23 Ranji Trophy with 907 runs in ten matches in a title-winning campaign — is of the view that IPL performances do get precedence.

“There’s a reason behind it. IPL is a tournament that international players take part in. But the only thing I don’t like is people performing in IPL getting chances in red-ball cricket. That shouldn’t be the case,” says the 34-year-old Vasavada.

Panchal understands the benefits that players of his ilk are missing by not getting an IPL gig. “There is international exposure. Players who perform in IPL know what pressure is. They know how to perform in front of large crowds. That could be a reason why players who do well in IPL are getting a chance.”

There’s often an argument that runs in the Ranji Trophy have to be gauged by considering the quality of attacks. Despite a heap of runs in the Ranji Trophy in recent years, Sarfaraz, for instance, has perhaps underwhelmed against a higher grade of bowling.

“The quality of attacks shouldn’t come into it,” Gharami counters. “If there was no quality, then any player from any state would have scored that many runs.”

Selections, of course, entail an element of subjectivity and gut instinct. “See, what I feel is there's always a reason that can be given,” says Vasavada. “We’ve seen players who have performed lesser than Sarfaraz or me. We can’t sometimes understand what the selectors want to do. If they want to not select you, they will always have a reason. And if they want to select you, they will always come up with a reason.”

This is why Vasavada finds solace in telling himself, “The selection process is not in my control. As a cricketer, it obviously hurts when you perform for your team and the selectors don’t consider you. But I don’t have any complaints over selection because I have seen so many players performing so well and still not getting a chance.”