In his new weekly column, Wisden India’s editor-in-chief Dileep Premachandran takes a look at the sporting scene in India, with a heavy focus on the country’s No 1 sport, cricket
Fresh from an astonishing haul of runs in the Ranji Trophy, the young Mumbai batsman is India’s most exciting prospect since a certain Virat Kohli
Mumbai winning the Ranji Trophy, India's premier first-class competition, is hardly a surprise. After all, they have now won it 41 times in 82 seasons. But this latest triumph, by an innings and 21 runs over Saurashtra, was special because it was largely unexpected.
When they last won the trophy in 2012/13, the line-up included Sachin Tendulkar and Wasim Jaffer, the former India opener who is the only man to aggregate more than 10,000 runs in the competition.
The years since had been lean ones. In 13/14, they took a healthy 122-run lead in the quarter-final against Maharashtra, but were then skittled out for 129. They lost by eight wickets.
After struggling in the league phase of the 2014/15 event, they got as far as the semi-final before Karnataka, the defending champions, schooled them.
Never in the history of Mumbai cricket had they been so humiliated. Replying to Karnataka’s modest 202 on a well-grassed pitch, they were shot out in 15.3 overs for just 44. Karnataka, who would go on to win the final, eventually prevailed by 112 runs.
With India’s international commitments barely giving players room to breathe, the top stars seldom turn out in the Ranji Trophy.
Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane may be the inheritors of the great Mumbai batting tradition, but there have been only sporadic appearances for the Ranji team in recent seasons. Instead, a new and mostly untested group of players was tasked with bringing the trophy back ‘home’.
The standout talent in that bunch has been Shreyas Iyer, who will surely play for India sooner rather than later.
In his first full Ranji season, last year, he made 809 runs at 50.56. Of those that made more than 500 runs, only Punjab’s Gurkeerat Singh, capped recently in Australia, scored at a better rate than Iyer’s 75.89.
He followed that up with 439 IPL runs for a poor Delhi Daredevils side that won just five of their 14 games. As much as the range of strokeplay, what was especially impressive was the confidence with which he went about things. Many young sportsmen go through the sophomore blues. Not Iyer.
It was almost as though last season’s exploits were an appetiser. This time, he plundered 1321 runs in 11 matches, including a magnificent 142-ball 117 in a low-scoring final.
Only one man, VVS Laxman in 1999/2000, has accumulated more in a season (1415), but back then, the competition was played on zonal lines.
More than the sheer number of runs, what has been astonishing has been the pace at which Iyer has scored them.
A strike-rate of 92.7 is exceptional in 50-over cricket. In the first-class arena, it borders on the unthinkable.
After he pillaged 200 from just 176 balls against a strong Punjab side, Yuvraj Singh was moved to tweet: “The young wiz kid played an exceptional knock today @shreyaasiyer03 took the game away from us ! Player to watch for the future.”
Iyer, 21, isn’t much of a believer in false modesty either. There have been several interactions with Sachin Tendulkar, a frequent visitor to the Mumbai camp, and he was also part of an India A squad coached by Rahul Dravid.
“All of them have given me a lot of advice, I wouldn’t point out a single person,” he told Wisden India recently. “All of them have helped me, but a majority of the credit goes to me because I have worked hard.
“Many of them give you advice, you have to just listen to yourself and keep performing. I back my instincts. I speak my mind, I don’t hesitate. I have learnt this from my parents, because they have backed me a lot.”
Provided fame’s bright lights don’t blind him, he could be the most exciting all-format batsman India has seen since Virat Kohli broke through seven seasons ago.
World T20 venue selection shambles
The fixtures for the World Twenty20 were announced on December 11, 2015.
But with the matches in the main draw slated to begin on March 15, tickets for first-phase matches in Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Mohali and Dharamsala went on sale only on February 24.
For games in Mumbai, Delhi and Nagpur, you had to wait a further two days. But the sense of frustration, if you are a fan – whether travelling from overseas or based in India – does not end there.
For the high-profile matches – India’s four group games, and the semi-finals and final – there is an online lottery system, with no guarantee of your name coming up.
The International Cricket Council has been at the receiving end of a great deal of negative publicity as a result of the ticketing shambles.
There is only one problem – ticketing is the host board’s responsibility.
The BCCI, who raised plenty of eyebrows during the allocation of matches, are more concerned by requests for complimentary tickets than servicing genuine fans.
Not that there will be many tickets to go around in any case. Dharamsala, which hosts the India-Pakistan match, seats only 23,000.
Every other venue has a bigger capacity.
Chennai isn’t hosting a single men’s game, presumably punishment for being N Srinivasan’s fiefdom.
Even with the three disputed stands not in use, the capacity is greater than Dharamsala.
The two grounds hosting the most matches are Nagpur, home to Shashank Manohar, the BCCI president, and Dharamsala, where Anurag Thakur, the board secretary, has his power base. Neither would merit a mention if you asked someone to name India’s five most iconic venues.
sports@thenational.ae