NAGPUR: Looking at the points table of the recently concluded Vijay Hazare Trophy, one may get a feeling that Vidarbha lacked in all departments. However, when the score card is put under the lenses, some key points of contention come to fore.
All their seasoned batters looked at ease and got the starts in important games. However, when the starts were not converted into significant knocks, Vidarbha derailed. The only occasion a batter — Faiz Fazal — converted the start into a big knock, Vidarbha looked a different side and even recorded a win.
Moving into the most challenging domestic tournament — the Ranji Trophy — Vidarbha batters would like to draw inspiration from Faiz's pattern of building an inning when they take on Railways in 4-day encounter at Jamtha stadium from Tuesday. The last Ranji Trophy match was played at the venue in February 2020.
Vidarbha are likely to take the field with the same top-5 that played the one-day format. Starting with skipper Faiz, they would have R Sanjay, Atharva Taide, Ganesh Satish and Akshay Wadkar, all of whom form the crux of Vidarbha batting.
"If any two established batters make it count in every match, you will see us topping the Elite Group-D and play the knockouts, which we missed in the last season," said a VCA official on Monday.
Vidarbha are likely to stick to the 3-pacer attack as BCCI curator Taposh Chatterjee, who is in the city for the season opener preparations, has left a tinge of grass on the wicket. The pack, comprising Rajneesh Gurbani, Aditya Thakare, Lalit Yadav and Yash Thakur, all established longer format bowlers, would be eager to use the conditions to the best effect.
Skipper Faiz, who will be playing his 129th First Class game, will want his go-to spinners Akshay Wakhare and Aditya Sarwate to tweak the rivals' plan. It will be interesting to see if all-rounder Harsh Dubey gets a debut cap.
Though the opposition has quite a few new faces, the likes of Karn Sharma, Upendra Yadav, Pratham Singh and Arindam Ghose have been consistently doing well for their side. They all could turn the match on its head in a session.
