17 March,2024 07:01 AM IST | Mumbai | Sunil Gavaskar
Mumbai off-spinner Tanush Kotian (extreme right) celebrates the dismissal of Vidarbha’s Yash Rathod on Day Four of the Ranji Trophy final at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. Pic/Atul Kamble
Mumbai winning the Ranji Trophy for the 42nd time was probably the best end to what has been a truly memorable season for Indian cricket. Yes, there was the disappointment of tripping at the last hurdle of the ICC World Cup and not being able to cross another hurdle of a series win in South Africa, but overall when you look at the performances there is so much to be proud of this Indian team led by a captain for whom a senior player like Ravichandran Ashwin said he would give his life for. The other players as well raised their game beyond expectations to get India a memorable victory over England. It is never easy to replace giants like Virat Kohli and Mohd Shami, but the young Indian players showed that given the opportunity they also could rise to the occasion like these stalwarts have done so often in the past.
Ashwin's story of how Rohit Sharma went out of his way to be with him at a time when his mind was in a turmoil after hearing about his mother's sudden and unexpected illness was most touching. Of course, another former teammate Cheteshwar Pujara also came in for a lot of praise as did Jay Shah for arranging flights for him to travel to Chennai and then come back after a couple of days. The return to action also deserves praise for the family, because the family realised that it was important for Indian cricket for Ashwin to be back playing in the Test match. Something similar had happened 25 years ago, when Sachin Tendulkar lost his dear father and had to fly back from the World Cup in England to attend to the last rites. His family then also recognised his importance to Indian cricket and encouraged him to return to England to continue playing the World Cup. This awareness of the family that their member is what he is because of Indian cricket is a crucial factor. It is always nice when not just the player but the family also recognises the huge role of Indian cricket in the position that their family is currently in.
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All eyes will now be on the Incredible Premier League which kicks off in a few days' time. This year's tournament will be important for many a player from different countries looking to find a place in their country's team for the ICC World T20 championship. There is already some ill-founded speculation on the selection of certain players in the Indian team. What is amusing is that so many former overseas players are talking about what the Indian team should be. You won't ever find an Indian player telling other countries who should be in their squad and who shouldn't be. What you will also not find is that the same overseas players talking about who should be in the squads of the other teams. So the question is, why do to they want to poke their noses in the selection of the Indian team. Ajit Agarkar and his fellow selection committee members have done an outstanding job of selecting the Indian squads over the season and so thanks, but no thanks to all these former overseas cricketers. Please mind your own business and don't tell us what to do.
Coming back to the Ranji final, Mumbai had somebody or the other putting their hand up on crucial occasions. But it would be only fair to mention three names who could be in line for bigger things - Shams Mulani, the left-handed all-rounder, the offie Tanush Kotian who is such a handy bat down the order and young Musheer Khan. No one is forgetting the centuries scored by Shardul Thakur and Tushar Deshpande in the earlier rounds, as it will remain in the memory for a long, long time, as also Ajinkya Rahane's captaincy.
It was pretty close till lunch time on the last day. Vidarbha, to their credit, kept fighting and did not give up till the very end. That's exactly how you want a final to be. No praise can be too high for Vidarbha's skipper Akshay Wadkar for his magnificent century full of some sparkling shots, the best of which was a pull shot off the slippery Tushar Deshpande that went to the square-leg boundary even quicker than it came off the pitch. Having kept wickets for two days and then to come and play such an innings just speaks of the calibre of this young cricketer. Don't forget that he was also the captain of the team, so he would have been physically and mentally drained out after Mumbai's second innings effort and yet he comes out and plays a superb innings like this one. The national selection committee was very much present at the finals and hopefully would have made a note of this top class performance. The way Vidarbha did not crumble, as in the past, can also be attributed to the influence of Chandrakant Pandit, the former Mumbai player, who was a coach over there and under whom Vidarbha won the Ranji Trophy back to back and also the Irani Trophy. Under him another team Madhya Pradesh, which also used to be unfancied in the past, won the Ranji Trophy couple of years back.
Hopefully Chandu will be able to replicate his results at the Ranji level, in the IPL too. It will be interesting to see, if that happens, whether he gets the credit or someone else.
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