Ranji Trophy knock-outs are meant to be far from being a no-contest. But with the defending champion Vidarbha having topped the group and up against first-class rookie Uttarakhand, a day before the start of the quarterfinals, not many expect the pahaadi boys to match the skills of the in-form Vidarbha outfit from Tuesday.
Just like all the nine Plate league teams — eight debutants along with Bihar who returned to the Ranji fold — have relied heavily on their professional signings, Uttarakhand would have hoped for its seasoned pros to at least try and stretch the match into the fifth day.
Bhatia unavailable
But even on that count, Uttarakhand is depleted with captain Rajat Bhatia being unavailable for the big clash.
Bhatia, a former Ranji winner with Delhi who is at the fag end of his playing days, has been aiming to be a professional trainer and he had told the Uttarakhand management of his unavailability in January well in advance.
With their captain who was their highest run-getter in the league stage unavailable, the onus will be on the other two pros to avoid the match being lop-sided. Vineet Saxena, who will lead in Bhatia’s absence, has already been a Ranji champion with Rajasthan while Malolan Rangarajan featured in a Ranji final for Tamil Nadu five years ago.
The task will be made even more difficult with Umesh Yadav having joined the Vidarbha squad for the first time this season. Having spent almost two months in Australia as a member of the victorious Test squad without getting any game time, Umesh will be desperate to get into a rhythm.
With Rajneesh Gurbani, the swinger, having recovered from the wrist injury suffered against Mumbai, it will be a potent pace attack for Vidarbha.
Add to that the fact that Wasim Jaffer has been rewinding the clock with his silken touch right through the league stage and captain Faiz Fazal having cleared the fitness test after a troubled left heel and Vidarbha is set to steamroll into the semifinals.
The teams (from):
Vidarbha: Faiz Fazal (Capt.), Ganesh Satish, Wasim Jaffer, Aditya Sarvate, Pawan Parnate (w.k.), Atharva Taide, Siddhesh Wath (w.k.), Akshay Wakhare, Akshay Wadkar (w.k.), Rajneesh Gurbani, R. Sanjay, Akshay Karnewar, Suniket Bingewar, Umesh Yadav, Yash Thakur, Mohit Kale, and Akshay Kolhar.
Uttarakhand: Vineet Saxena (Capt.), Malolan Rangarajan, Saurabh Rawat (w.k.), Sunny Rana, Sunny Kashyap, Vaibhav Bhatt, Vaibhav Panwar, Deepak Dhapola, Mayank Mishra, Dhanraj Sharma, Karanveer Kaushal, Kartik Joshi, Shivam Khurana (w.k.), Girish Katuri, and Avneesh Sudha.
Umpires: Sudhir Asnani, Amish Saheba; Match referee: Prakash Bhatt.
