Indian stars headline eighty-fourth edition of Ranji Trophy

New Delhi: The 84th edition of Ranji Trophy that begins on Friday will see a plethora of Indian cricket stars in action besides the return of the home and away format.

India play their next Test from November 16 and that has allowed the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Cheteshwar Pujara to get some additional match practice and contribute to their state team’s campaign in the premier domestic tournament.

Besides Ashwin, the presence of Test opener Murali Vijay will further bolster Tamil Nadu, who play their tournament opener at home against Andhra. Abhinav Mukund, India’s reserve opener in the recent Test series against Sri Lanka, will captain Tamil Nadu.

Pujara, who like Ashwin had a fruitful county stint in England, will captain Saurashtra in the absence of Jaydev Shah. Giving him company will be left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja, who suddenly finds himself out of the national ODI and T20 squad.

Test keeper Wriddhiman Saha and pacer Mohammed Shami will turn up for Bengal in the team’s first round match against Services at Palam.

Ishant Sharma, India’s leading speedster not so long ago, will lead the Delhi squad with Gautam Gambhir declining captaincy for another season.

Sharma will be itching to perform after not getting a game in the three Test series against Sri Lanka. The lanky pacer has not been part of India’s limited overs set up for a long time now, having played his last ODI in January 2016 and T20 back in 2013.

The tournament is definitely high on international flavour and what should make it more interesting for the fans is the return of the home and away format.

Schedule: Matches start at 9.30 am
Group A
 Delhi vs Assam (Delhi)
 Hyderabad vs Maharashtra (Hyderabad)
 Uttar Pradesh vs Railways (Lucknow)
Group B
 Haryana vs Saurashtra (Rohtak) 
 Kerala vs Jharkhand (Thiruvananthapuram) 
 Rajasthan vs Jammu & Kashmir (Jaipur)
Group C: 
 Madhya Pradesh vs Baroda (Indore) 
 Tamil Nadu vs Andhra (Chennai) 
 Odisha vs Tripura (Cuttack)
Group D 
 Goa vs Chhattisgarh (Porvorim) 
 Himachal Pradesh vs Punjab (Dharamsala)
 Services vs Bengal (Delhi)

Most Titles

Mumbai (then Bombay) with 41 titles, holds the record of winning the most number of titles. They were also the first winner by beating Northern India at Mumbai in 1934-35. 

Most runs

Wasim Jaffer who made 10,143 runs at 56.98 in 201 innings of 129 matches with 35 hundreds, holds the record of scoring the highest number of runs in Ranji Trophy. 

Most Wickets

Rajinder Goel who claimed 640 wickets at 17.15 in 123 matches holds the record of most wicket. He is followed by Srinivas Venkatraghavan.
Stats: S. Pervez Qaiser

Players must shoulder responsibility: Ishant Sharma
Newly-appointed Delhi captain Ishant Sharma wants his players to shoulder responsibility as he feels the core of the current team is “fairly experienced” having played together for nearly four seasons.

The likes of Unmukt Chand, Manan Sharma, vice-captain Milind Kumar have all been around for some time now and Ishant is confident that the team will perform to its potential as they gear up for their Ranji Trophy group A opening round encounter against Assam,on Friday.

“The dressing room atmosphere is good. We have had good preparation. This is a good team with a lot of young players. But they have been around for three-four years now and they have the experience. Now is the time to take responsibility. The first target is to reach the knock-out stage,” Delhi skipper Ishant said on the eve of their opening game.

Shami’s versatility will be Tiwary’s key
Speedster Mohammed Shami’s versatility will be skipper Manoj Tiwary's key weapon as Bengal take on Services in a group D opening round encounter of the Ranji Trophy, on Friday.

Shami has been released from the Indian T20 squad for the Australia series and would be Bengal's key player on a placid Airforce ground track.

“Having Shami is a big plus for our side. Admitted it's a track where 20 wickets can be difficult but a bowler of Shami's ability gives you that confidence,” skipper Tiwary said on the eve of the match.

Shami has had run-ins with injuries but will Tiwary preserve him considering Indian team needs him? “I am the captain of Bengal team and if I need him to bowl 4 spells, he would have to bowl for the team,” Tiwary said.