A preview of the prospects of Vidarbha and Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2014-15 Ranji season
13-Dec-2014VidarbhaBy Vishal DikshitHaving switched from Karnataka to Vidarbha, Ganesh Satish will want to hit the ground running with his new team•K SivaramanYuvraj, Harbhajan to miss Vidarbha game
Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh, have decided to skip Punjab’s Ranji Trophy league game against Vidarbha in Nagpur.
“Bhajjupa is still to recover from the bout of fever, while Yuvi paaji has requested for a break,” Mandeep Singh, who will lead Punjab for the second game in succession in Harbhajan’s absence, told reporters in Nagpur.
Harbhajan hasn’t featured in a first-class game since the Irani Cup tie in February, while Yuvraj set up Punjab’s victory against Haryana with a second-innings hundred in Patiala last week.
Where they finished last season
Seventh in Group A, or third from bottom, with one win and three losses out of eight matches.Big Picture
Vidarbha have had a topsy-turvy ride in the last few years. They were promoted to the top groups in 2012-13 after acing Group A in the 2011-12 Plate League. Sairaj Bahutule had taken over as coach, but inconsistent performances under him led to his sacking and Vidarbha have roped in Paras Mhambrey for this season.They started 2014-15 with three wins in four Vijay Hazare matches, but could not go beyond the quarter-finals. Batting is their stronger suit with an in-form Faiz Fazal joined by Ganesh Satish and S Badrinath, who will captain the side. They have promise in the form of Shalabh Shrivastava as well. Rashmi Parida though has moved to Himachal Pradesh after the lone season with them in 2013-14.Their bowling will be depleted without Umesh Yadav, who is in Australia and is unlikely to be available with the World Cup also around the corner. So left-arm pacer Shrikant Wagh will marshal the pace attack while offspinner Akshay Wakhare will lead the slow bowlers. Inexperienced left-arm pacer Ravikumar Thakur earned some recognition recently with 11 wickets in the Vijay Hazare Trophy at an average of 17.00, but converting that into the longer format will be a steeper challenge, and vital, if Vidarbha want to get closer to the knockouts.Players to Watch
After scoring a hundred in last season’s Ranji final, switched from Karnataka to Vidarbha citing lack of opportunities. He has already scored a one-day hundred for his new team in November, and representing Vidarbha will give him the exposure he would want as a top-order batsman.Shrikant Wagh was not as effective in the limited-overs matches, but he was their leading wicket-taker last Ranji Trophy, with 23 in eight matches, and is one of their experienced bowlers.Uttar PradeshBy Amol KarhadkarWhere they finished last year
After finishing second in Group B, Uttar Pradesh lost in the quarter-final to eventual champions Karnataka.Big Picture
Uttar Pradesh are sometimes compared to Pakistan for their unpredictability, a characteristic that came to the fore during last season’s campaign. While they registered outright victories against Baroda and Services, they were also routed by Bengal. In the end, the two outright victories played a huge role in their qualification.UP have traditionally banked on individual brilliance to see them through to the knockouts. Last year, however, they built on a team effort before crumbling against a formidable Karnataka outfit in the quarter-finals. No batsman scored more than 500 runs and no bowler took more than 30 wickets but Uttar Pradesh still made the knock-outs with relative ease.This year, Mohammad Kaif has moved to Andhra, Sudeep Tyagi has switched to Saurashtra and Suresh Raina will miss the whole campaign due to India duties. Still, their bowling unit yet again emerges as a key weapon. Praveen Kumar and RP Singh’s availability for domestic cricket would have bolstered their attack but they will have to compete with Ankit Rajpoot and Amit Mishra for a place in the side. Fitness will also be important as UP will have to play all eight league games in succession, just like last year.Players to watch
Kuldeep Yadav hasn’t played a Ranji Trophy game yet but the chinaman has spent some time in the India ODI dressing room and has been marked as one for the future, as indicated by inclusion in the World Cup probables. It would be interesting to see how the UP think-tank handles him, especially with captain Piyush Chawla leading the side and left-arm spinner Ali Murtaza having proven himself with the ball and bat.Tanmay Srivastava has been on the first-class circuit for eight years now. Still, the left-handed opening batsman has failed to raise the bar and make a case for national selection. Last year, he was the only UP batsman to score more than one hundred, but despite his two centuries, Srivastava tallied 369 runs from nine innings at 46.12. It’s high time he steps up his performance and emerges as the leader of UP’s batting unit.
