Ranji Trophy tracker: Virat Kohli, KL Rahul pull out, Rohit Sharma to play

In the wake of a crushing 1-3 defeat to Australia, the Indian cricket team faces a daunting challenge. With only two Ranji Trophy matches to select the squad for the India vs England series, the BCCI selection committee is on the clock. Virat Kohli and KL Rahul will skip the Ranji after they informed the BCCI Medical team of niggles. Kohli is carrying a neck sprain while Rahul has an elbow issue. Ravindra Jadeja hasn’t confirmed his availability yet. As for Rohit Sharma, he has confirmed that he will play at least the match against Jammu & Kashmir on Jan 23.

Only sevent of the 17 players in the IND vs AUS series will play those two Ranji Trophy matches. Jasprit Bumrah and Sarfaraz Khan are out injured while Washington Sundar will be busy in IND vs ENG T20Is.

Superstars’ last Ranji Trophy

Who are playing Ranji Trophy?

The big names who will feature in the Ranji Trophy are: Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Mohd Siraj may not be part of Ranji due to workload management.

While Rohit Sharma is set to play at least one match (Mumbai vs Jammu & Kashmir), Virat Kohli and KL Rahul have confirmed that they won’t play. Rohit Sharma was the worst of all in Border Gavaskar Trophy. He averaged just 6.20 in five innings before the India captain dropped himself from the Sydney Test. In 15 innings this season, Rohit has averaged 10.93 including 11 single-digit scores.

Rohit at least made a statement by turning up for Mumbai’s training sessions. But Kohli, who is (or at least should) embattled, is apparently carrying a niggle. KL Rahul too has an elbow issue and won’t be part of the Karnataka team. But Rohit has once again called for everyone to play domestic whenever they can, issuing no stern warning, rather a request.

“Last 6-7 years, if you look at our calendar, we haven’t been sitting home for 45 days when cricket is going on. You do get time when IPL finishes when nothing happens after that. Our domestic season begins in October, ends till March. Guys who are not playing all formats and when there’s domestic cricket happening, they can play,” Rohit said.

Who are playing Ranji, who are not?

Player	State	Grade	Part of BGT	Playing Ranji?	Reason
Rohit Sharma	Mumbai	A+	Yes	Yes
Virat Kohli	Delhi		Yes	No	Injured
Jasprit Bumrah	Gujarat		Yes	No	Injured
Ravindra Jadeja	Saurashtra		Yes	No clarity	Workload management
R Ashwin	Tamil Nadu	A	Yes	No	Retired
Mohd Shami	Bengal		No	No	IND vs ENG T20I
Mohd Siraj	Hyderabad		Yes	No clarity	Workload management
KL Rahul	Karnataka		Yes	No	Injured
Shubman Gill	Punjab		Yes	Yes
Hardik Pandya	Baroda		No	No	IND vs ENG T20I
Suryakumar Yadav	Mumbai	B	No	No	IND vs ENG T20I
Rishabh Pant	Delhi		Yes	Yes
Kuldeep Yadav	UP		No	No	Injured
Axar Patel	Gujarat		No	No	IND vs ENG T20I
Yashasvi Jaiswal	Mumbai		Yes	Yes
Rinku Singh	UP	C	No	No	IND vs ENG T20I
Tilak Verma	Hyderabad		No	No	IND vs ENG T20I
Ruturaj Gaikwad	Maharashtra		No	Yes
Shardul Thakur	Mumbai		No	Maybe	Depends on selection
Shivam Dube	Mumbai		No	Maybe
Ravi Bishnoi	Rajasthan		No	No	IND vs ENG T20I
Jitesh Sharma	Vidarbha		No	Maybe
Washington Sundar	Tamil Nadu		Yes	No	IND vs ENG T20I
Mukesh Kumar	Bengal		No	Yes
Sanju Samson	Kerala		No	No	IND vs ENG T20I
Arshdeep Singh	Punjab		No	No	IND vs ENG T20I
KS Bharat	Andhra		No	Yes
Prasidh Krishna	Karnataka		Yes	Yes
Avesh Khan	Madhya Pradesh		No	No	IND vs ENG T20I
Rajat Patidar	Madhya Pradesh		No	Yes
Dhruv Jurel	UP		Yes	No	IND vs ENG T20I
Sarfaraz Khan	Mumbai		Yes	No	Injured
Akash Deep	Bengal		Yes	No clarity	Injured
Vijaykumar Vyshak	Karnataka		No	Yes
Umran Malik	J&K		No	No clarity	Injured
Yash Dayal	UP		No	Yes
Vidwath Kaverappa	Karnataka		No	Yes
Devdutt Padikkal	Karnataka	No contract	Yes	Yes
Tanush Kotian	Mumbai		Yes	Yes

Red-ball practice elusive

The second leg of the Ranji Trophy begins on January 23 with two confirmed league matches. However, the Test regulars will not be available for the Ranji knockouts as they are selected for IND vs ENG ODIs and ICC Champions Trophy.

IND vs ENG ODI series begins on Feb 6. The last league match of Ranji Trophy ends on Feb 2. The Ranji knockouts will begin on Feb 8 with the final starting on Feb 26. That gives the Test players just two Ranji Trophy games before the white-ball season begins.

BCCI will try to arrange two practice matches before the IND vs ENG Test series starts on June 20. It will help players make the transition from white ball to red ball. However, it is unlikely that India will get any quality opponent for match practice. It will be a busy season in England. None of the County teams will be willing to field their main players for a practice game.

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What does BCCI say?

In the aftermath of the disastrous Border Gavaskar Trophy, Sunil Gavaskar urged all players to play the Ranji Trophy without any excuses. BCCI has also doubled down on playing domestic cricket if a player is not injured. While it is not mandatory for senior pros like Virat, Rohit, Bumrah and Jadeja, it is up to the selectors to pick them if they decide to skip domestic matches without permission.

“It’s not been made mandatory but has been communicated to all the cricketers, even the fringe players, to play the Ranji Trophy. If they don’t, it will be up to the selectors to take suitable action,” a BCCI source told The Hindu.

No Virat Kohli in Ranji Trophy

With the India Test Team under pressure following poor performance in Australia, the two Ranji Trophy matches would have calmed the selectors’ nerves a bit. But Kohli snubbing Ranji despite his poor run of form does not sit well.

Kohli averaged 22.47 in 19 Test innings this season. While he scored a century in Australia, he followed it up with some poor scores of 7, 11, 3, 36, 5, 17, 6. He was dismissed eight times in nine innings while trying to chase a delivery outside the off stump. How he was dismissed in those innings also raised questions.

Virat Kohli would have also benefitted from grinding in domestic cricket once again and getting his touch back. He could correct his approach a bit to save the embarrassment of getting out in a similar fashion eight times. Kohli last played Ranji Trophy back in 2012. 

Others like Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant are short of runs and they need that confidence back. Ranji Trophy would be the ideal platform.