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Follow UsThe new season brings new hope, and with that comes an opportunity to start afresh. That is what the players in the upcoming Ranji Trophy season will be looking to do as India’s premier first-class season kick-starts on October 11.
While every player participating in the tournament dreams of playing for India, only a few will be able to realise their dreams. With a couple of big series—against New Zealand and Australia — coming up, the national selectors will certainly keep a keen eye on the tournament.
Here we take a look at some of the uncapped players who India could consider as a back-up option when the need arises:
Opener
Abhimanyu Easwaran
No batter perhaps deserves an India call-up more than Abhimanyu Easwaran. However, with Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal churning the runs on a consistent basis over the last couple of years, his opportunity to play for India at the highest level has eluded him.
In his last seven first-class matches, Easwaran has slammed three hundreds. Moreover, since 2022, only Jaiswal (2,723) has scored more runs than the Bengal skipper (2,709) in first-class cricket as an opener. India are lucky to have someone of the calibre of the 29-year-old waiting in the wings.
Spin all-rounders
The standards have been set so high by the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja with both bat and ball that it is going to be difficult to find someone who can match their consistency with both bat and ball. If you look beyond them, there’s Axar Patel, who, too, has proved to be a consistent performer.
However, who from the domestic system could potentially replace them if needed?
Tanush Kotian
Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Irani Cup: Tanush Kotian has cracked all these tournaments. The 25-year-old was the Player of the Tournament in the Ranji Trophy last season, finishing with 29 wickets at 16.96 and smashed 502 runs at 41.83. He also slammed a ton coming in at No 10 and put on 232 runs for the last wicket with Tushar Deshpande (123) in a quarter-final clash against Baroda last Ranji Trophy.
That’s not the only time he has rescued his team down the order, though, doing it even in the Duleep Trophy and more recently, he hit 64 and smashed an unbeaten ton in the second innings of the Irani Cup, to help Mumbai to their first title in 27 years.
With his sparkling all-round displays, the off-spinning all-rounder has certainly ensured that he remains on the radar of the selectors.
Saransh Jain
Madhya Pradesh off-spinner Saransh Jain had an excellent Ranji Trophy season for Madhya Pradesh, finishing with 27 wickets at 20 from eight matches, and also scored 432 runs at 36, batting down the order. Moreover, he has also graduated to India A recently, where he scored twin fifties against England Lions and picked up 3/50 in the second innings to help his side to a win in Ahmedabad.
In the Irani Cup, Saransh led the way with the ball in the second innings and gave Rest of India a sniff, with figures of 6/121. He grinds with the bat and also with the ball and rightly could be on the fringes of a national selection.
Manav Suthar
At 22, Manav Suthar is making a steady rise. Suthar made his Ranji Trophy debut for Rajasthan only in 2022-23, but since then has gone on to play an unofficial game for India A against England Lions, the Emerging Asia Cup tournament in Sri Lanka, the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Duleep Trophy and more recently the Irani Cup. He has made the best of his chances well, picking up 77 first-class wickets in 18 matches, to go with his 605 runs at 28.80 with the bat.
He showed can hold his own against some of the best players in the domestic circuit, scoring 82 against India B, and in the previous game against India D, he managed 7/49. The left-arm spinner has certainly shown promise and is earmarked for greater success at this age.
Shams Mulani
There’s a gulf between Shams Mulani and the next-best spinner on the list, yet the Mumbai bowler has not made it to the Test squad. In fact, he has never even earned a call-up to the national side, but that has never discouraged him from giving his best in domestic cricket. No bowler has picked up more wickets than Mulani (142) in the Ranji Trophy since 2021. He recently played for India A earlier this year against England, picking up seven wickets in the match, including a fifer in the second innings.
What sets him apart from some of the other left-arm spinners in the country is the fact that he is a reliable batter down the order, averaging over 32, and has hit 17 fifties in 60 first-class innings as well. His prowess with the bat was visible in the Duleep Trophy, too, when he hit 89 and 44.
Fast bowling all-rounders
Hardik Pandya’s recurring back injuries have forced him out of action in red-ball cricket for over three years now, and there doesn’t seem to be any chance of him returning in the format in the near future. Shardul Thakur has done well in filling that role whenever the opportunity has risen, but if not Shardul, who is India’s next option?
There’s, of course, Shivam Dube, but his bowling has been lacking. However, they have seen the potential someone like Nitish Kumar Reddy possesses, so much so that he recently made his T20I debut against Bangladesh. In the longest format, his appetite to score big has always been impressive right from his Vijay Merchant days, where he hit a couple of centuries. At the first-class level, there hasn’t been much to ride home when it comes to his batting, barring the 159 he scored against Bihar earlier this year, but it is his bowling that has stood out.
His 54 wickets at 25.61 include a couple of five-wicket hauls, and he is someone who can bowl in the mid-130s. He could have further pushed his case with a couple of decent performances in the Duleep Trophy, but he failed with both bat and ball, scoring just 61 runs in five innings and picking up just one wicket. The 21-year-old has already caught the selectors’ attention, but the upcoming Ranji season could determine if it stays with him.
Back-up pacers
Avesh Khan
Avesh Khan has earned a call-up to the Test side, indicating that he could potentially be next in line to make his debut. However, Akash Deep has pipped him in the race, and with the likes of Mukesh Kumar and Dayal too waiting in the wings, Avesh may have further gone down the pecking order. But since the 38-wicket Ranji Trophy season in 2022-23, he has always been on the fringes. He has played a handful of matches for India A as well over the years, doing reasonably well. Even in the recent Duleep Trophy matches, he did not do exceedingly well but did his job bowling well in bursts.
Arshdeep Singh
There’s no denying that Arshdeep Singh is one of India’s finest T20I bowlers but the common consensus is that there’s still time for him to graduate to the Test side. For starters, he has played just nine matches in the Ranji Trophy since making his debut in 2019. He recently finished with career-best figures of 6/40 in the Duleep Trophy and has also had stints in County cricket.
If Arshdeep wants to be on that plane to Australia, he has the first 3-4 rounds of the Ranji Trophy to impress and potentially be in the reckoning.
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