Statistical review of the Ranji Trophy 2016-17 thus far

This edition of the Ranji Trophy has seen its fair share of history been created. While this tournament remains to be one of the few oldest surviving domestic tournaments, it seems clear that history and immortality in Indian cricket are something that many have seen in recent times.

However, in fairly recent times, the Ranji Trophy has incurred a bit of a makeover. This makeover firstly involves the fact that all Ranji Trophy matches will be played in neutral venues, perhaps a move that would probably propagate the fact that ‘home advantage’ should not be the reason for claiming easy victories over sides.

While the Board of Control for Cricket in India has seemingly revamped a minimal portion of the tournament, it seems quite clear that it is only a matter of time before the pink ball makes its way into the grand scheme of things. However, in the context of the ongoing Ranji Trophy season, we take a quick look at how the players have performed in different departments in the season thus far.

Top run-getters:

Leading the pack in terms of the most number of runs in the tournament thus far is former Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh. The old horse of Indian cricket has seemingly been in tremendous nick after being frozen out. He has 587 runs in the three matches he has played for Punjab thus far. This includes his highest first-class score as well which saw him slam 260 against Baroda at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi.

Barely 30 runs behind the southpaw Yuvraj Singh is batting sensation Deepak Hooda. The youngster has 557 runs to his name as well as the fact that he has impressed in the U19 World Championships in Australia a few years ago. In addition, Hooda slammed an unbeaten 293 incidentally in the same match that Yuvraj scored his 260. It remains to be a surprise that how none of these players are a part of the Indian squad for the England series.

While these two players have been more than impressive in recent times, 19-year-old Rishabh Pant’s performances take the cake. In just four matches for Delhi this time around, Pant has two tons and one half-century all of which have accumulated to 547 runs, 10 runs adrift of the second-placed Deepak Hooda. This also includes a wonderful 308 compiled against Maharashtra, a match that saw the Delhi lads chase the game for the most part.

The list is completed by Sagun Kamat, Ankit Bawane, and Jaydev Shah. Former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik finds himself in 10th place with 375 runs to his name.

Highest individual scores:

Apart from being the seventh highest run-getter in the tournament at the moment, Swapnil Gugale of Maharashtra boasts of the highest individual score in the Ranji Trophy this season following his unbeaten 351 against Delhi at a beauty of a batting track at the Wankhede Stadium. Ankit Bawne, the man who batted with him in that partnership in excess of 500 runs saw Bawane score 258 runs and in sixth place.

Yuvraj Singh has had a renaissance in the domestic circuit having slammed 260 runs against Baroda. Delhi’s young batsman Rishabh Pant slammed 308 runs against the Maharashtra side in Mumbai. This was particularly impressive given the fact that the youngster is making his debut on the biggest stage. Deepak Hooda also is one of the youngsters on the list having slammed 293 runs against Punjab at Delhi, the same match Yuvraj smashed his double-century.

23-year old Ravikumar Samarth slammed 235 in the first encounter against Jharkhand at Greater Noida. With Manan Vohra (224), Jaydev Shah (217), and Sagun Kamat (304*) making it count in the big stage. Sagun Kamat became one of the few players to get their name up in lights when it came to playing for Goa.

Top wicket-takers:

The current edition of the Ranji Trophy has seen batsmen scoring double and triple centuries for fun. However, in spite of this, some of the bowlers have found solace in the tournament having picked up wickets at will. 30-year old Indian discard Pankaj Singh has 24 wickets to his name for Rajasthan while he is followed by leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal who is 2 wickets behind him.

Andhra cricketer Siva Kumar is the surprise package on 20 wickets while Siddharth Kaul of the Punjab side is tied with the 26-year old Andhra pacer. Kaul is also famously known for being a part of the U19 side that claimed the 2008 U19 World Cup under the leadership of Virat Kohli.

Ashok Dinda, Parvez Rasool, Ishwar Pandey, and Kuldeep Yadav are all tied at 19 wickets apiece. All of these players have either played for the Indian cricket team or have been in and around the reckoning to be a part of the Indian cricket team. Ishwar Pandey and left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav find themselves to be a part of the latter category.

Standings:

The standings in the current table draw a perfect conclusion to who one can potentially expect in the final of the tournament. Group ‘A’ sees Gujarat top the table with two wins out of three. They are trailed by Bengal with a similar equation only with a slightly lower net run-rate. They are trailed by Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Baroda, and the Railways, all of whom have chances of making it to the finals.

Group ‘B’ sees former Ranji Trophy champions Karnataka stake their claim to the top position having won two of the three matches. Jharkhand has a fifty percent record in the tournament with Delhi, Rajasthan, and Odisha all trailing each other having won one game apiece. Assam is out of the reckoning having lost three of their four matches played.

Finally, Group ‘C’ is topped by the Mohit Sharma-led Haryana who has clinched 2 wins in the four matches played. However, in spite of losing out on one match, they remain to be on top of the table. Andhra also has a similar equation in spite of not having lost a match as of yet. Tripura, Hyderabad, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh all have clinched a win in at least one of their matches.