3 months ago
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: Kashmir to Kanyakumari is simply a slogan that is often invoked to epitomise the geographical grandeur, imaginativeness and diverseness of India. In sport, fewer tournaments symbolise this rather similar the Ranji Trophy, the nation’s prestigious home cricket competition.
As galore arsenic 38 teams instrumentality part, and matches are held successful each nook and country — successful foothills of the Himalayas, the fertile Deccan Plateau, against the backdrop of the beverage gardens of the North East and adjacent the Great Rann of Kutch.
From Tuesday, this premier tourney volition get a last befitting its stature erstwhile Karnataka takes connected Jammu & Kashmir astatine the KSCA Rajnagar Stadium here.
Karnataka is not rather Kanyakumari but they are adjacent enough, and determination hasn’t been a Ranji last betwixt 2 regions successful Independent India that are arsenic topographically distant.
In presumption of cricketing excellence this season, they are joined astatine the hip. Karnataka and J & K are the astir well-rounded sides and the acme clash is acceptable to diagnostic this edition’s highest run-scorer R. Smaran (950), and the 2nd and third-best wicket-takers successful Auqib Nabi (55) and Shreyas Gopal (46).
Karnataka is pedigreed, having won the coveted trophy 8 times. It has a star-studded squad with Test players similar K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, Karun Nair and Prasidh Krishna. As galore arsenic 4 — Rahul, Karun, Shreyas and Mayank — were portion of the confederate powerhouse’s past Ranji-winning squad successful 2014-15.
J & K is an upstart turned apical dog, looking for its maiden red-ball crown successful its first-ever final. It has momentum, having felled fancied outfits similar Madhya Pradesh and Bengal distant from location successful the knockouts.
And determination is some hunger and belief, qualities champion exemplified successful the occurrence of pacer Nabi (99 wickets successful 2 seasons) and the transcendence of skipper Paras Dogra (only the 2nd batter aft Wasim Jaffer to people much than 10,000 runs successful the Ranji Trophy).
However, for these 2 line-ups to bring their A-games, it is not conscionable astir signifier but besides fitness. While skipper Padikkal expressed happiness with his betterment from the digit injury, J & K had a scare connected Monday erstwhile all-rounder Vanshaj Sharma limped retired of grooming and opener Shubham Khajuria was stretchered disconnected with a backmost strain.
Conditions volition beryllium investigating arsenic well, for day-time temperatures are acceptable to hover successful the mid-30s. The transportation — trickiest of each variables — wore a greenish look connected lucifer eve and was being watered. If it holds up for 5 days, Karnataka’s archetypal location last since Mysuru 2010 tin beryllium a cracking affair.
The teams (from): Karnataka: Devdutt Padikkal (Capt.), K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, R. Smaran, Kruthik Krishna, Shreyas Gopal, Vidyadhar Patil, Prasidh Krishna, V. Vyshak, Shikhar Shetty, Mohsin Khan, K.V. Aneesh, K.L. Shrijith & Vidwath Kaverappa.
Jammu & Kashmir: Paras Dogra (Capt.), Shubham Khajuria, Yawer Hassan, Shubham Pundir, Abdul Samad, Kanhaiya Wadhawan, Abid Mushtaq, Auqib Nabi, Yudhvir Singh, Vanshaj Sharma, Sunil Kumar, Kawal Preet Singh, Sahil Lotra, Dikshant Kundal and Umar Nazir.
