Mumbai
When the second phase of Ranji Trophy starts from today, star players like Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant will be seen playing in it after a long time. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), taking a tough stance after the disappointing tour of Australia, has made it mandatory for any player to play domestic cricket if he is fit. This is the reason why top players have made themselves available to play in Ranji Trophy. These include Indian captain Rohit who will play in the Ranji Trophy for defending champion Mumbai after almost a decade.
For the first time this season, Ranji Trophy is being organized in two phases. Meanwhile, the two biggest limited overs competitions, Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day tournament were organised. In the first phase of Ranji Trophy, all the teams played five matches each. In the second phase, each team will play two matches. There will be a lot at stake in these matches, not only for the team but also for the national level players, who were clearly told after the poor performance in the home series against New Zealand and then in Australia that they cannot ignore domestic cricket.
Star batsman Virat Kohli will not be able to play for Delhi in the next round of Ranji Trophy due to a neck strain but he has made himself available for the last round match of the group stage starting from January 30. However, Rohit is ready to play for Mumbai under the captaincy of Ajinkya Rahane. Mumbai will have to face a tough challenge from Jammu and Kashmir in the next match, which is currently placed second in Elite Group A. Rohit can open the innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal in this match. Baroda is currently on top in this group and Mumbai will have to perform strongly in the next two matches to keep alive its hopes of becoming champion for the record 43rd time.
India’s Test and ODI captain Rohit struggled to score runs in the last two series and his return to form will be important for the Indian team which has to participate in the Champions Trophy next month. Delhi will face two-time winners Saurashtra in Rajkot in which Rishabh Pant will face his national team teammates Ravindra Jadeja and Cheteshwar Pujara. It is very important for both the teams to win this match of Group D. Delhi is currently at fourth position while Saurashtra is at fifth position. Tamil Nadu and Chandigarh are at the first two positions in this group. The top two teams from each group will make it to the quarter-finals. Punjab have managed only one win in five matches so far in Group C and are placed fifth but all eyes will be on Indian ODI team vice-captain Shubman Gill when his team faces Karnataka at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. .
Punjab will miss Abhishek Sharma and Arshdeep Singh in this match who are in the national team for the T20 series against England. On the other hand, Karnataka will get a boost from the return of Devdutt Padikkal and Prasidh Krishna. Bengal will not be able to get the services of fast bowler Akashdeep and batsman Abhimanyu Easwaran in the match against Haryana in Kalyani. Both these players are injured. Fast bowler Mohammed Shami will also not be able to play for Bengal due to being part of the national team.
Last year’s Ranji Trophy runners-up and Vidarbha, who recently lost to Karnataka in the Vijay Hazare Trophy final, will face Rajasthan in a Group B match in Jaipur. In this match, all eyes will be on Vidarbha captain Karun Nair who is in excellent form at the moment.
