While Madhya Pradesh are the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy champions, Saurashtra will play the Irani Trophy as the 2019-20 champions because the one-off match was not held for consecutive seasons due to COVID-19.
Gone are the days when the Rest of India versus Ranji champions match was a virtual national team trial game, with a good performance guaranteeing entry into the national dressing room.
Pujara, on the other hand, can be a handful for the young speed guns Umran Malik, Kuldeep Sen, Arzan Nagwaswalla, or the upcoming spinners R Sai Kishore and Saurabh Kumar on his home ground, where he has scored truckloads of runs.The main issue for the rest of India is that they have too many in-form openers in their 15-man squad.
India’s ‘A’ team of Priyank Panchal and Abhimanyu Easwaran performed admirably against New Zealand’s ‘A’ team, while Yashasvi Jaiswal was in imperious form in the Duleep Trophy, scoring 265 in the final.
The Saurashtra bowling attack will be led by Jaydev Unadkat, a domestic pro who will be disappointed not to have received a national call up after 65 wickets in the 2019-20 season. Chetan Sakariya will bring the ball back into the right-handed batters’ hands.
On a slow batting surface, both teams’ spinners will come into play starting on the third day.
Cheteshwar Pujara and the ‘five openers’ are the focus of Saurashtra’s Irani Cup match against ROI.
By tirupatinews
