Ranji Trophy Preview: Ranji Trophy matches are starting from Friday (January 5) on various grounds in the country. While new players will try to make their mark in this prestigious competition, some old players will try their best to regain their lost prestige. The matches will start at 9.30 am Indian time.
India's Test team is almost certain to have players in both batting and bowling departments, so only an extraordinary performance in the country's major cricket competition will be able to attract the attention of the selectors.
There are not likely to be many changes in the Indian team for the five-Test series against England starting later this month. After this, Indian players will remain busy in limited overs cricket, which also includes IPL and T20 World Cup to be held in June.
Pressure on Pujara-Rahane to score big
In Ranji Trophy, all eyes will be on Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, who are currently out of the Indian Test team. Both these players will try to maintain their claim by making big scores. Rahane will also captain 41-time champion Mumbai.
The drill! 🏏 pic.twitter.com/PYR8YLR2LB
— Cheteshwar Pujara (@cheteshwar1) January 4, 2024
Similarly, Karnataka's Mayank Agarwal, who scored the highest 990 runs in the last season, will also try to strengthen his claim for a place in the national team by playing big innings.
Currently, young Yashasvi Jaiswal is opening the innings for India in Test cricket along with Rohit Sharma. Apart from Agarwal, the contenders for opening batsman in the team also include Abhimanyu Easwaran, who is currently in South Africa with the team due to injury to Ruturaj Gaikwad. In this way Easwaran will not be able to play in the first round match of Ranji Trophy.
Apart from these, there are many young players who are desperate to leave their impact. These also include Mumbai's Sarfaraz Khan, who despite performing well in the last few seasons, failed to make a place in the national team.
Due to the injury of Mohammed Shami, the weakness of Indian fast bowling was also exposed in the Test series against South Africa as Prasidh Krishna, who replaced him in the team, could not perform as expected. After this, there is a discussion going on to strengthen the 'bench strength' of fast bowling.
Big opportunity for young fast bowlers
In such circumstances, young fast bowlers like Karnataka's Vidyut Kawerappa, Vaisakh Vijayakumar, Gujarat's Arjan Nagawaswala and Bengal's Ishan Porel will leave no stone unturned to make their impact.
Apart from these young fast bowlers, Saurashtra captain Jaydev Unadkat will also try to strengthen his claim.
As far as spinners are concerned, the focus will be on Rajasthan's 21-year-old left arm spinner Manav Sutar, who took 44 wickets in 8 matches last season.
The teams playing in Ranji Trophy and their groups are as follows –
elite group a: Saurashtra, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Vidarbha, Haryana, Services, Manipur.
Elite Group B: Bengal, Andhra, Mumbai, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Bihar.
elite group c: Karnataka, Punjab, Railways, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Gujarat, Tripura, Chandigarh.
elite group d: Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Baroda, Delhi, Odisha, Pondicherry, Jammu and Kashmir.
Plate Group: Nagaland, Hyderabad, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh.
