'Hopefully, they will go and score runs in Ranji' - Sourav Ganguly advices senior duo on regaining lost form

The Indian experienced pair of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have been going through a rough patch for a while now and BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has advised the duo to play Ranji Trophy to get back the form. Both these batters have been under heavy criticism after the 1-2 Test series loss to South Africa as they could manage just one half-century in the entire six innings. More importantly, they failed when India needed them the most in the third Test and a lot of questions have been raised over their careers now.

Rahane after the phenomenal Melbourne century in 2020, has managed just three fifties until now and his average has dropped significantly after a string of poor scores in 2021. Pujara on the other hand is yet to score a Test century since the 2019 tour to Australia and despite his fighting innings at times, he has failed to produce the big knocks that are used to be seen from him. Both these cricketers have approached their mid-30s and they are likely to face stiff competition from the youngsters.

They will go back there and perform: Sourav Ganguly

Ganguly who himself had to rediscover his place in the Test side in 2005 by playing a Ranji Trophy season had advised the experienced pair to take part in domestic cricket. He backed both the batters to come good in the Ranji season and doesn’t find anything harmful in it. The Ranji trophy 2022 season was earlier suspended due to the surge in Covid-19 cases inside the camp, however, there are now talks of the tournament’s league stages taking place within the start of IPL 2022.

“Yeah, they are very good players. Hopefully, they will go back to Ranji Trophy and score a lot of runs, which I am sure they will. I don’t see any problem [for them to go back to domestic cricket after playing so much international cricket]. Ranji Trophy is a huge tournament, and we have all played the tournament,” Ganguly told Sportstar

“So, they, too, will go back there and perform. They have played the tournament in the past when they were only playing Test cricket and were not part of the ODI or limited-overs team. So, that won’t be a problem.” he added

India has the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari waiting in the wings for a long time now and they are expected to get their opportunities in the upcoming home Tests against Sri Lanka in place of the duo. Meanwhile, Rahane and Pujara are likely to get demoted from their Grade A contracts as well.