White space in coloured page, Ranji to restart

The talk in Indian cricket so far this year — the 30-odd days we’ve seen anyway — has been about one man and his legacy. And both MS Dhoni the captain and MS Dhoni the batsman, have already for good measure produced quite the narrative. There was the ‘have we seen the last of Dhoni?’ phase following the 1-4 drubbing in the ODIs which soon turned into ‘how dare we questioned Dhoni?’ as India orchestrated a memorable 3-0 cleansweep in the T20s against a hapless Australia.

But cut off from the limelight, two other wicket-keepers will be resuming their own little battle, vying incidentally to grab on to the wicket-keeping mitts that Dhoni had left vacant following his retirement from Tests a year-and-a-half ago. Bengal’s Wriddhiman Saha and Madhya Pradesh’s Naman Ojha — both of whom have gotten a shot at cementing themselves as India’s glove-man in whites but failed to do so with any conviction — will have to wait for at least four months for the outcome.

In a way, that will be the story of the Ranji Trophy’s entire knockout phase this time around. The focus will squarely be on the shortest format, and the T20 fixation will not just continue for the next couple of months when the World T20 comes home, but right through till the end of the May when IPL-9 draws to a close. And more or less it will be those who have little or no chance to make that bus who will make a return to whites after the first-ever winter-break in Ranji history.

It will be a four-month phase where a couple of timely boundaries — ask Yuvraj Singh — or a miserly last over where you’ve gone for less than 10 runs under the lights will turn you into an overnight sensation, while the hard-fought centuries and tireless spells under the unremitting early summer sun will hardly get you an entry into the briefs section. To the extent that when the field narrows to two from eight and they face off in the Ranji final three weeks from now, they will do so under the shadow of an India-Pakistan Asia Cup tie in Bangladesh.

But these are the score-cards that will be scanned with retrospective diligence in the second-half of 2016 with Virat Kohli & Co. slated to play 13 Tests at home when the Sahas, the Ojhas and of course the Pujaras will be back in vogue.

We look at the four quarterfinals, starting across the country from Wednesday, and what is likely to be in store.