Published: Sep 30, 2015, 06:24 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 30, 2015, 06:24 PM (IST)
Jharkhand was a part of Bihar till 2000; a split in the state paved way for a new cricket team as well. MS Dhoni, the face of cricket in the state, hails from Ranchi. It is widely reported that Dhoni will take part in Ranji Trophy 2015-16 once he has finished his limited-overs international assignments. Since Dhoni has retired from Tests, he will not play the series against South Africa, paving way for him to return to the domestic circuit after a gap of 11 years. Read all Ranji Trophy 2015-16 team previews here
Varun Aaron has been named the new skipper, taking over from Kumar Deobrat, who has been named his deputy. Aaron was part of the Indian squad that registered a 2-1 win in Sri Lanka. A good performance during this season might help him get a longer run in the national squad.
Jharkhand have made an encouraging start during their brief Ranji Trophy history. They are by no means pushovers, but have been punished for their tendency to depend on a few players. In the last season they crashed out in the group stage but their bowling seem to show a lot of potential. Leg-spinner Samar Quadri and slow left-arm spinner (and former skipper) Shahbaz Nadeem picked up 57 wickets between them. READ: BCCI to not implement Anil Kumble’s proposed points system for Ranji Trophy
Their batting clicked in patches as well. The likes of Saurabh Tiwary, Ishank Jaggi and Shiv Prakash Gautam will be entrusted in scoring a chunk of the runs. Tiwary, one of the senior members of the Jharkhand side, will have to step up and take responsibility.
Youngsters like Kaushal Singh and Virat Singh will be playing their second season. This will be a crucial season for them too as well. Rameez Nemat will contribute with his experience as well.
Jharkhand’s primary aim will be to get off to a good start. Jharkhand have relatively easy fixtures and it gives them a good chance to make it to the knockout stage. The play Services first, who eighth out of nine teams in Group C. This will be followed by matches against Saurashtra and Kerala; the Goa match that will follow should be an easy win. Goa finished bottom of Group C last season and will continue to struggle despite getting some good players. Tripura, another team that has struggled over the years, will face Jharkhand. Tripura have won only 7 matches in Ranji Trophy, and have failed to register a win the previous season. They will, however, face tough challenge from Jammu & Kashmir and Hyderabad. READ:Mohammad Kaif: Greg Chappell created an atmosphere where players were backbiting about each other
Jharkhand must go into the matches with positive intent. Not many will give Jharkhand a chance this season, but with a couple of wins, they may turn out to be the dark horse in the tournament.
Squad: Varun Aaron (c), Kumar Deobrat, Ishan Kishen (wk), Rameez Nemat, Virat Singh, Ishank Jaggi, Saurabh Tiwary, S. P. Gautam, Kaushal Singh, Shahbaz Nadeem, Samar Quadri, Vinayak Vikram, Rahul Shukla, Ajay Yadav and Jaskaran Singh.
(Pramod Ananth is a reporter at CricketCountry. He has represented Karnataka table tennis under-15, and is a hardcore supporter of Liverpool FC. His Twitter handle is @pramz)
