From Arun Lal to Wasim Jaffer, Abhinav Mukund to Vikram Rathour, Shiv Sundar Das to Surendra Bhave, opening batsmen have emerged as run-machines in the Ranji Trophy over the years. But the recently-concluded edition threw up a startling fact — not a single opener featured in the top-20 run-getters.
In fact, the highest tally by an opener came from Goa’s Sumiran Amonkar (24th with 646 runs), who played in Plate Group, the lowest rung. Each of the last 20 editions of the tournament has seen at least one opener in the top-five run-getters.
So what has led to the drastic change in the openers’ numbers? Jaffer believes a delayed start to the tournament is a “major reason”.
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Aiding the bowlers
“Since the tournament started in December this time around, the conditions were in favour of pace bowlers. Earlier we used to start in October and the conditions would be even,” Jaffer, the former India opener who retired recently as the highest run-getter in Ranji history, tells
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“Now it’s a one-way traffic for pacers. Even if the wicket has a little bit of help, because of the weather, the bowlers are always on top. Not just in the north, but a majority of places are so cold that it works against batsmen, especially openers. Add to that the SG ball that aids bowlers and has made life difficult for openers.”
India-A players struggle
Vijay Dahiya, the former India wicketkeeper-batsman who also coached Delhi to its last Ranji title in 2007-08, doesn’t see the late start as a factor, but is worried about the lack of runs from the likes of Priyank Panchal and Abhimanyu Easwaran.
The duo, a regular with India-A for the last couple of seasons, had a miserable season.
While Panchal, who plays for Gujarat, tallied 457 runs from 17 innings at 28.57, Abhimanyu, who led Bengal to the final, scored just 258 runs from the same number of innings at 17.20.
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“A worrying trend is that some of the regular openers who have been playing for India-A haven’t been able to score runs in the Ranji Trophy. I am not sure on what basis will they be persisted with the next time an India-A or Rest of India squad is picked,” says Dahiya, a regular in commentary crew for domestic cricket.
TN coach’s take
D. Vasu, Tamil Nadu’s coach, feels the absence of established batsmen in a few games has also played a role in the low returns.
“Senior players in a few sides were coming in and going out. Even for Tamil Nadu, we struggled to get an opener. Murali Vijay went out and then Abhinav Mukund didn’t play a few games,” Vasu says.
“We had issues because of that. Once the senior batsmen go out, getting replacements becomes a problem.”
Jaffer concludes by pointing out the lack of time to prepare ahead of the tournament after a prolonged white-ball season.
No breather
For the last couple of years, the inter-State domestic season has started with the Vijay Hazare Trophy and moved to Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, leaving barely a week for the players to prepare with the red ball.
“After playing one-dayers and T20s, if you start Ranji Trophy in eight or 10 days, you are bound to struggle. Even the best find it difficult to cope with the change in the formats and suddenly if you enter Ranji Trophy in that kind of weather, it’s bound to be challenging for the openers.”