No scope for errors in shrunken Ranji

Ranji season kickstarts across nine venues from February 17.
Representational Image
Representational Image

BENGALURU: It is going to be a unique Ranji season when the premier domestic competition kickstarts across nine venues from February 17. It is probably for the first time that the four-day event has been divided into two phases — league stage before the IPL and knockouts after.

More importantly, there is a change in the format with just four teams in each elite group and the winner from these will reach the knockout stage. And, the lowest-ranked team among them will meet the Plate topper in the quarterfinal.

As a result, there is no scope for errors for top teams like Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, Saurashtra among others. One bad game and their road to the knockout stages might come to an end. Likewise Karnataka, who might have been pitted in a relatively easier group comprising Railways, Jammu & Kashmir, and Pondicherry, cannot take things for granted. Which is why, Karnataka head coach Yere Goud is treating all matches as knockouts too.

“It is important for how we prepare and play this tournament. We can’t have one bad session. The grouping is such that only one team qualifies for the knockouts. We will be treating all the group games like knockouts. If we want to win the Ranji Trophy this time, then it’s about winning six games,” said Goud.

In fact, at one point, it even looked like the competition would be cancelled for the second year in succession. Interestingly, the Vijay Hazare and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy had taken place amidst the pandemic, meaning that the players have played more white-ball cricket in the last two years at the top domestic level.

“We’ve been working on three core areas: temperament, concentration and the other is fitness. If you’re able to address these issues, temperament for example, is crucial in defence for a batsman.
One needs to have the temperament to tackle spinners on turning tracks and seamers on seaming tracks. If you have the three qualities, then format doesn’t matter, it’s only about making psychological adjustments,” said Goud.

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