In pre-IPL era, Vidarbha would have celebrated much longer but the cramped schedule means the defending champions have only two days to switch back to work. After playing 11 matches over last three months, Vidarbha will be back to defend their Irani Trophy title against Rest of India (RoI), when the two sides meet at Jamtha stadium on Tuesday.
Not much has changed for Vidarbha in these four days. They were given two days break to refresh and enjoy their success with their family. They had a grueling practice session for the last two days to fine tune their skills.
This time around, their opposition is much tougher, led by India Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane. Then there are likes of opener Mayank Agarwal and middle order batsman Hanuma Vihari in the RoI line-up. Agarwal and Vihari also played last year against Vidarbha. It was one of the rare occasions, when Agarwal missed out, while Vihari made most of it and scored nearly half of the runs RoI side put up on the board in reply to Vidarbha’s 800.
Veteran Wasim Jaffer had made a mockery of Rest of India attack with a marathon 286-run knock and that triggered his revival. He is unstoppable since then and has scored 1037 runs this season.
The Jamtha wicket isn’t the same this time around. It will be similar to Ranji Trophy final, which means batsmen will have to apply themselves.
Vidarbha certainly have advantage playing at home and knowing the nature of the wicket. They will miss the services of their premier pacer Umesh Yadav, who has been ruled out due to a ‘niggle’. The RoI look set to test the home team. They have good all-round attack, with season’s highest wicket-taker Dharmendra Jadeja, who took six wickets in the last innings of the final. Karnataka off spinner Krishnappa Gowtham will also be handful on this wicket.
Besides, his batting will add depth to RoI line-up.
For pacers like Ankit Rajpoot, Sandeep Warrier, Ronit More and Tanveer Ul-Haq, it’s a good opportunity to present their cases. Their good performance will strengthen the Indian pace bench strength. The kind of batting line-up, RoI have, they should give sufficient to their bowlers to bowl at. The youngsters like Shryeas Iyer, Anmolpreet Singh and Rinku Singh will also look to extend their good run in the season.
Barring Umesh, Vidarbha are likely to go with the same side that played in the final against Saurashtra. Yash Thakur, who snapped up four Kerala wickets in Ranji semifinal, is most likely to be included in place of Umesh. Allrounder Aditya Sarvate will again look to make his presence felt and so would wicketkeeper batsman Akshay Wadkar. Wadkar has been in tremendous touch and was impressive in Vidarbha’s revival in the first innings. With selectors watching, Wadkar would be eager to perform well both front and behind the wicket.
SQUADS:
Vidarbha: Faiz Fazal (captain), Sanjay Ramaswamy, Atharva Taide, Wasim Jaffer, Ganesh Satish, Mohit Kale, Akshay Wadkar (wicketkeeper), Siddhesh Wath, Aditya Sarvate, Akshay Karnewar, Akshay Wakhare, Darshan Nalkande, Rajneesh Gurbani, Yash Thakur, Suniket Bingewar.
Rest of India: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Anmolpreet Singh, Hanuma Vihari, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Krishnappa Gowtham, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ankit Rajpoot, Tanveer Ul-Haq, Ronit More, Sandeep Warrier, Rinku Singh, Snell Patel.
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