It will be another Ranji Trophy season marked by notable comebacks, old hands in new roles, and youngsters pushing to grab the national spotlight. Devendra Pandey and Bharat Sundaresan on what lies ahead

Ten months ago, a young paceman from Uttar Pradesh made a name for himself by outfoxing the most celebrated piece of wood in international cricket. A nippy in-cutter snicked the inside edge of the said willow, thudded into the front pad and lobbed to short mid-wicket where a simple catch was completed. Sachin Tendulkar had been handed his first blob in a domestic career spanning 21 years, Mumbai were reduced to 55 for four, and young, wiry Bhuvaneshwar Kumar had made it to the headlines.

Over the next five days, the action was feverish: Rohit Sharma smashed 141 to help post a huge first-innings total, Zaheer Khan scalped seven to bowl UP out cheaply, Rohit scored his second ton of the match to set them an improbable, if not insurmountable, target, before Dhawal Kulkarni’s five-wicket haul handed Mumbai their 38th Ranji Trophy title.

Incident-packed as they were, though, those five days pale in comparison to what has followed over the next 10 months: India visited Sri Lanka to kick-start their season, slipped into New Zealand for a full tour, flew to South Africa for the Indian Premier League, jetted straight to England for the second edition of the World Twenty20, trudged all the way to the Caribbean for four of the most inconsequential one-dayers ever played, went back to Sri Lanka for a tri-series (after, of course, the newly concocted domestic Corporate tournament), headed back to South Africa for the Champions Trophy before returning home for the inaugural Champions League T20 (which has blended seamlessly into a seven-match ODI series against world champions Australia).

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