There is a certain old-school charm associated with Ranji Trophy. Red-ball cricket over four or five days, players in white flannels, dull draws and exciting wins. Indian cricket missed all this over the past 23 months with the 2020-21 season shelved due to the pandemic.
The premier domestic tournament returns in a new format with teams playing fewer matches, the tournament being held in two phases – before and after the Indian Premier League — and mid-match Covid replacements. Given that no fresh red-ball talent has emerged on the national scene in the past season, players will be keen to perform and catch the eye of the selectors.
Outlining the importance of the format, former left-arm pacer and Karnataka bowling coach Sreenath Arvind pointed out, "Unlike the T20s, for the longer format, we need more players. Ranji Trophy teaches a lot to a player, not just in the cricketing aspect but also in terms of discipline and concentration level. It is very important that we play the longer format regularly."
The league phase of the competition will get under way in nine cities across the country on Thursday. Six-time champions Karnataka will begin their campaign against Railways at the Guru Nanak College Ground in Chennai.
A trophy has eluded Manish Pandey and his men this season, having lost the title battle to Tamil Nadu in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament and a quarterfinal loss in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Karnataka are in an easy group, bunched as they are with Railways, Jammu and Kashmir and Pondicherry in Elite group C.. But given the shortened format of the tournament, the margin for error is minimum.
Karnataka’s biggest test in the league will be against Railways. The pitch for the opening tie is expected to aid spinners and on that front, Karnataka are well-equipped. The proven spin duo of K Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal headline the attack with J Suchith and KC Cariappa in the mix. On paper, Karnataka have an enviable batting line-up with Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, R Samarth, Pandey, D Nischal and KV Siddharth in the top and middle order.
The team will be without middle-order batsman Karun Nair for the first match. The 30-year-old, who did not travel with the team last week due to Covid-19, joined the bio-bubble on Wednesday and will undergo a mandatory five-day quarantine and three rounds of RT-PCR tests.
An area of concern for the team coached by former Railways skipper Yere Goud is the pace attack. The in-form Prasidh Krishna, arrived in Chennai on Tuesday after completing national duty but will be unavailable for the contest. In his absence, Ronit More will lead the pace attack, but the 30-year-old hasn’t played competitive cricket this season due to injury. Even if the team goes in with a three-spinner attack, the toss-up for Ronit’s pace partner will be among greenhorns Vidhyadhar Patil, Vyshak Vijaykumar and M Venkatesh.
Railways too have their own share of woes, fielding a team which has many red-ball debutants.
