Ranji Trophy 2017-18: Playing XI of the season

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Faiz Fazal led from the front for Vidarbha

With the conclusion of the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy, it was fitting to merge the 11 best players and form a team of young, upcoming talent as well as experienced campaigners. Under-rated Vidarbha reached their first Ranji final and ended up on the winning side.

Though a lot of names like Gautam Gambhir, R Sanjay, Akshay Wakhare and Ashok Dinda came close to making it to the eleven best players of the season, the eventual list was too close to call.

Winners Vidarbha have two members from their side.


Openers

Faiz Fazal (c), Vidarbha - 912 runs at 70.15 in 9 matches

Vidarbha's captain could not have done more to lead his under-rated side to the most surprising of results in Ranji history. By the time he lifted the trophy after they beat Delhi in the final, Fazal and company had ensured that they remained unbeaten throughout the nine games. As one of the opening batsmen, Fazal built huge partnerships with his partner R Sanjay and converted five of his six half-centuries into a hundred.

Against Himachal Pradesh, he achieved his highest first-class score of 206 and in the quarter-final against Kerala, he stepped up to slam 119 in the second innings, a knock which went a long way in a comprehensive win of 412 runs.

Mayank Agarwal, Karnataka – 1,160 runs at 105.45 in 8 matches

Bashing big runs at will, Karnataka's opener Mayank Agarwal sits on top of the batting charts for the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy. He began the domestic season with low scores aplenty: 13 and 8 for India A against New Zealand A in unofficial ODIs; and 31 against Assam and then a pair against Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy.

But that was it as far as those scores were concerned. In the very next game, he hit back with a best of 304* against Maharashtra; after that came 176 against Delhi; post that, scores of 90, 133*, 173, 134 and 78 followed against Uttar Pradesh, Railways and Mumbai respectively. Agarwal built up a mountain of runs to separate himself from the next highest run-getter by more than two hundred runs.

Middle-order

Anmolpreet Singh, Punjab - 753 runs at 125.50 in 5 matches

Semi Final 1 - ICC Under 19 World Cup
Punjab's Anmolpreet Singh smashed three centuries this Ranji season

A graduate of the Punjab Under-16 and the Under-19 sides, top order bat Anmolpreet Singh first burst onto the big stage by carving out a sensible innings of 72 for India in the semi-final of the Under-19 World Cup in 2016, though India fell short in the final against West Indies. Before that, a respectable contribution of 41 against Namibia in the same tournament had shown glimpses of what was to come.

Soon, Anmolpreet earned a place in the Punjab side, making his List-A debut in the 2016-17 Vijay Hazare Trophy and stroking a rapid 58 off 41 balls, a knock including 4 fours and 3 sixes. Though that effort went in vain, he stepped out as a Ranji debutant the following season; and a 50 in his first match acted as a spark of three centuries to come.

A knock of 113 in an innings win over Goa, then 267 at over a run a ball against Chattisgarh in yet another innings victory and 252* against Services in a spirited draw announced his potential.

Hanuma Vihari, Andhra – 752 runs at 94.00 in 6 matches

The captain of the Andhra side, Hanuma Vihari led from the front by compiling massive runs, ending the season as the fourth-highest run-getter overall and by far the highest run-getter from his team. It was only last year that he switched from Hyderabad to Andhra, and seeing his potential, captaincy arrived for the 2017-18 season.

Pre-season scores of 59* in a one-day game for India Under-23 against an Afghanistan Emerging side and 105 for India Blue in the Duleep Trophy signalled his intent early.

And in just the second Ranji match, Vihari, 24, struck 150 against Baroda, who had Irfan Pathan and an in-form Swapnil Singh in their bowling line-up. In just the next game, he bashed 302* against Odisha, his maiden first-class triple century. He ended with two hundreds and three half-centuries as Andhra exited in the group stages.

Siddhesh Lad, Mumbai – 652 runs at 59.27 in 7 matches

The eighth highest run-getter this season and the highest from his side, Siddhesh Lad, along with Dhawal Kulkarni, was the only shining spark from Mumbai. A team expected to make it big and produce outright results found in Lad a consistency lacking from others like Abhishek Nayar and Aditya Tare.

He hit two hundreds and three fifties this season with a highest score of 123 against Tripura in the final group game which Mumbai went on to win by 10 wickets. Innings of 82, 71* and 86 also improved Lad's season though Mumbai lost to Karnataka in the quarter-final.

Sanju Samson (WK), Kerala – 627 runs at 52.25 in 7 matches

In a season of disappointment for Kerala, their wicket-keeper batsman Sanju Samson shone with a bright display by accumulating 627 runs with two centuries and three half-centuries. Though Samson threw away multiple starts – innings of 51, 28, 42, 72, 68 and 32 must have frustrated him and his team equally – what will give him confidence is the hundred against the visiting Sri Lankans in the warm-up game.

Against an international bowling attack, he got 128 and in the Ranji game immediately after that, smashed 175 against Saurashtra, having hit 112 against Jammu & Kashmir just before that.

All-rounder

Jalaj Saxena, Kerala – 44 wickets at 17.11 in 7 matches

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Jalaj Saxena was the leading wicket-taker this season besides scoring heavy runs

The experienced all-rounder Jalaj Saxena, who switched over to Kerala from Madhya Pradesh at the start of the 2016/17 season, ended up as the highest wicket-taker in 2017-18. Not only that, he hit 522 runs at 52.20 though Kerala were eliminated in the quarter-final after losing to eventual winners Vidarbha by a massive 412 runs.

Eleven wickets against Jharkhand inspired Kerala to a nine-wicket win while ten wickets and a century – also a first innings 79 – fashioned another outright victory against Rajasthan. He got a century and three fifties and bagged three five-wicket hauls to go with two ten-wicket match hauls.

Spinner

Krishnappa Gowtham, Karnataka – 34 wickets at 22.24 in 8 matches

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Krishnappa Gowtham was the fifth highest wicket-taker this season

An off-spinner still finding his feet in domestic cricket, Krishnappa Gowtham blossomed with 34 wickets this season, the fifth-highest tally. Being the only one from his side to feature in the top fourteen list – even ahead of his experienced captain Vinay Kumar – Gowtham started the year with a five-for for India Red against India Green in the Duleep Trophy.

Consistent performances later in the Ranji Trophy from the 29-year-old gave Karnataka early momentum, as Gowtham bagged seven wickets against Assam in an innings win. Later, during the business end of the group stage, he came up with his career-best haul of 7/72 against Railways, following that up with 6/104 against a highly rated Mumbai line-up in the quarter-final.

Pacers

Ashok Dinda, Bengal – 35 wickets at 20.20 in 8 matches

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Ashok Dinda took 7/21 against Chattisgarh this season

One of the old warhorses of Bengal cricket, 33-year-old Ashok Dinda maintained consistency throughout a season in which he also played his hundredth first-class game for them. In just the second match this year, Dinda ran through the Chhattisgarh batting line-up, claiming excellent figures of 7/21 and 3/26 in the game, thus giving Bengal an innings win and receiving the Player of the Match award.

Two more five-fors came against Himachal Pradesh and Goa, and though both matches were drawn, Bengal gained useful first innings lead both times to pave the way for their qualification for the quarter-final, in which Dinda took 3/48 against defending champions Gujarat.

Rajneesh Gurbani, Vidarbha – 39 wickets at 17.13 in 6 matches

An unknown name to have made it big in just his second Ranji season, medium pacer Rajneesh Gurbani had a fairytale of a journey in which he took 39 wickets. Most importantly, he always performed when it mattered the most: 6/113 against Himachal Pradesh in the final group game, 5/38 against Kerala in the quarter-final, 5/94 and a career-best 7/68 against Karnataka in a tense semi-final win and most crucially, 6/59 against Delhi in the final, a haul which included a hat-trick.

Though he lacks the adequate pace to threaten a batsman, his swing and accuracy proved enough to unsettle the opposition multiple times.

Navdeep Saini, Delhi – 34 wickets at 22.73 in 8 matches

There cannot be a more heartening sight for India than to see a young pacer bowling accurately and with good pace on the slow, spin-friendly home pitches. Navdeep Saini, 25, has captured his opportunity at Delhi in perfect style by bagging 29 wickets this Ranji season, behind only left-arm spinner Vikas Mishra from his team.

Saini and his pace compatriot Kulwant Khejroliya, another rising young pacer, have led the Delhi attack, playing a huge role in their journey to the final.

Saini took seven wickets against Uttar Pradesh, a game which Delhi won by four wickets; his 4/57 against Maharashtra went a long way in giving Delhi an innings win; and when it mattered the most, Saini took seven in the match again while playing Bengal in the semi-final. In fact, he was also supposed to fly to South Africa as a net bowler with the Indian team, but with Delhi qualifying for the final, he was pulled out.

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Edited by Sankalp Srivastava