AS IT HAPPENS

India Domestic Season 2019-20 - News Digest

by Cricbuzz Staff • Last updated on

Vidarbha are the two-time defending champions of Ranji Trophy © BCCL

Welcome to our rolling news coverage for the Indian Domestic Season 2019-20. Find the Ranji Trophy schedule here:

News - Domestic players will have to wait for their pay hike as BCCI sorts out taxation issues.

No DRS in Ranji Trophy quarterfinals. It will be available for the semifinals and final. More details.

Quarterfinals (starting on February 20)

Gujarat v Goa - Valsad

Bengal v Odisha - Cuttack

Karnataka v Jammu & Kashmir - Jammu

Saurashtra v Andhra - Ongole

Vineet Saxena retires!

The former Rajasthan batsman, who has more than 7000 first-class runs to his name, has called time on his career. Saxena was part of Rajasthan's back-to-back Ranji Trophy winning team of 2010-11 and 2011-12.

The Ravi Yadav record

Madhya Pradesh's left-arm pacer became the first player to bag a hat-trick in the first over of his Ranji debut, when he dismissed Sameer Rizvi, Akshdeep Nath and Mohammad Saif from Uttar Pradesh on consecutive deliveries.

Record for Goa

Sumiran Amonkar and Vaibhav Govekar scored 160 each and added 316 runs for the first wicket against Arunachal Pradesh - a record stand for any wicket for Goa.

Mayank Agarwal asked to rest (December 31)

The Indian team management has asked Mayank Agarward to rest ahead of India's tour of New Zealand. The opener will now miss Karnataka's clash the away clash against Mumbai starting from January 3.

Vinay Kumar becomes Ranji Trophy's most successful pacer (December 28)

Vinay Kumar surpassed Pankaj Singh, during Puducherry's match against Mizoram, to become the leading wicket-taker in the history of Ranji Trophy. The former Karnataka pacer returned six wickets in the match as Puducherry won by an innings and 272 runs.

December 26 - National Selector asked to leave Bengal dressing room

India's national selector from East Zone Devang Gandhi was asked to leave the Bengal dressing room at the Eden Gardens during the team's Ranji Trophy encounter against Andhra. Anti-corruption official at the venue took the call upon receiving a complaint from senior Bengal players.

"We have to follow what is contained in the anti-corruption protocol. A national selector cannot get in the dressing room without authorization," former captain Manoj Tiwary -- who was among the players raising the question -- was quoted as saying by India Today.

"Only the players and officials who have their mug-shots at the entrance can get access in the dressing room."

As per reports, Gandhi entered the dressing room to consult the Bengal team physio. But this is a breach of the anti-corruption laws as only players and team support-staff selected for the match can be present in the dressing room.

Assam's match against Jharkhand moved out of Guwahati (December 14)

The Assam vs Jharkhand Ranji Trophy match, set to take place on December 17, has been moved out of Guwahati to Ranchi due to political unrest in Assam. Saba Karim, the head of BCCI's cricket operations, told Cricbuzz, "As for now, that is only match which has been shifted out. Since the other home games of Assam are not being held in Guwahati, we are awaiting further reports from the state association on whether it will be feasible to continue holding matches there."

Umesh Yadav to play against Rajasthan (December 13)

Umesh Yadav is set to feature for Vidarbha in their next Ranji Trophy encounter, set to begin on December 17, against Rajasthan. Vidarbha bagged three points from their first game of the season, against Andhra, courtesy a first innings lead in a drawn encounter.

Final day's play in Guwahati and Agartala called off (December 12)

Owing to the political unrest and local curfew, the final day's play of the Ranji Trophy games between Assam & Services in Guwahati, and between Tripura & Jharkhand in Agartala has been called off. It's unclear if the games will be completed on a later date.

"We have been advised by the state association not to go ahead with the game. Players have been asked to remain in the hotel. The players' safety is paramount," BCCI GM Cricket Operations Saba Karim told PTI. "Whether the game will be replayed or the points will be shared. We will take a call on that later."

Ishant not in Delhi's Ranji Trophy squad (December 5)

Ishant Sharma's name doesn't feature in Delhi's Ranji Trophy squad for the first two rounds. Dhruv Shorey will be leading the unit while Nitish Rana has been named the vice captain. Anuj Rawat will keep wicket. The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) also named four stand-byes: Pranshu Vijayran, Sarang Rawat, Kshitiz Sharma and Karan Dagar.

Delhi will open their season against Kerala at Thumba on December 9.

Squad: Dhruv Shorey (captain), Nitin Rana (vice-captain), Kunal Chandela, Anuj Rawat, Jonty Sidhu, Lalit Yadav, Shivam Sharma, Viukas Mishra, Tejas Baroka, Pradeep Sangwan, Navdeep Saini, Pawan Suyal, Kunwar Bidhuri, Hiten Dalal, Shivank Vashisth.

Unadkat to lead Saurashtra; Nair named Karnataka captain (December 4)

With Jaydev Shah retiring from the game, Jaydev Unadkat has been named the captain for the Ranji Trophy 2019-20 season. Cheteshwar Pujara is part of the squad but Ravindra Jadeja isn't given his international commitments.

Squad: Jaydev Unadkat (c), Cheteshwar Pujara, Sheldon Jackson, Arpit Vasavada, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Kamlesh Makwana, Snell Patel, Chirag Jani, Harvik Desai, Prerak Mankad, Avi Barot, Vishvaraj Jadeja, Kushang Patel, Chetan Sakariya, Divyaraj Chauhan, Jay Chauhan.

For Karnataka, Karun Nair will lead the side with Shreyas Gopal his deputy with Mayank Agarwal also named in the side.

Squad: Karun Nair (c), Mayank Agarwal, Devdutt Padikkal, D Nischal, R Samarth, Pavan Deshpande, K Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, J Suchith, BR Sharath, Sharath Srinivas, Ronit More, David Mathias, V Koushik, KS Devaiah.

Suryakumar Yadav, Vijay Shankar named captains for Ranji Trophy (December 3)

Suryakumar Yadav, who captained Mumbai in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy, will lead the team in the upcoming season of Ranji Trophy as well, returning as the full-time first-class captain for the first time since the 2014-15 season. Meanwhile, former captain Aditya Tare has been named Suryakumar's deputy. Mumbai will be missing out on the services of Shreyas Iyer (national duty) and Siddhesh Lad (personal reasons) but will be bolstered by the presence of Ajinkya Rahane.

Mumbai squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Aditya Tare, Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw, Jay Bista, Shubham Ranjane, Akash Parkar, Sarfaraz Khan, Shams Mulani, Vinayak Bhoir, Shashank Attarde, Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Dhawal Kulkarni, Eknath Kerkar.

The Tamil Nadu side will be led by all-rounder Vijay Shankar, while Baba Aparajith will be the vice-captain of the team. R Ashwin, Dinesh Karthik and Murali Vijay have been named in the squad for the first two matches - against Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh - while Washington Sundar, who's part of the India squad for the limited-overs series against West Indies, will join the TN team for the second game.

Tamil Nadu squad: Vijay Shankar (c), B. Aparajith, M. Vijay, Abhinav Mukund, Dinesh Karthik (wk), N. Jagadeesan (wk), R. Ashwin, Sai Kishore, T. Natarajan, K. Vignesh, Abhishek Tanwar, M. Ashwin, M. Siddharth, Shahrukh Khan, K. Mukunth.

After 40 overs of tantalising cricket, Karnataka defended their Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy by the narrowest of margins, a one-run win over rivals Tamil Nadu helping them become the first team to complete the white-ball double - they also won the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy - in a season.

Manish Pandey's knock of 60, aided by Rohan Kadam's 35, helped Karnataka post a sizeable total of 180 for 5. Vijay Shankar (44) and Baba Aparajith (40) kept Tamil Nadu in the chase with handy knocks before it came down to the final over with TN needing 13.

Ravichandran Ashwin hit fours off the first two balls of the K Gowtham's over to bring the equation down to 5 off 4. Gowtham then switched angles to round the wicket, bowled a dot and gave away a single to swing the equation to a more nervy 4 from 2. Vijay's run out at a crucial juncture, thanks to Pandey's accurate throw, left TN needing two to win off the final ball. But Murugan Ashwin could only manage a single, sending the Karnataka team into delirium and sinking the other dug out into stunned silence.

Despite losing their last group game to Maharashtra by 45 runs, Punjab made it through to the Super League. They were aided by the result in the contest between Himachal and Railways, which the latter lost and joined Punjab and three other teams - Chandigarh, Chattisgarh and Hyderabad - to finish equal on 16 points each. Punjab, by virtue of a better Net Run Rate qualified, along with Maharashtra who had 20 points to their credit.

Other than them, Baroda, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Mumbai, Haryana, Delhi and Jharkhand have qualified for the Super League.

Amiesh Saheba retires (November 18)

Veteran umpire Amiesh Saheba retired from cricket on Monday. Saheba, who is only the second Indian umpire after Suresh Shastri to officiate in more than 100 first-class games, officiated in the game between Bengal and Assam, in Mumbai - his last domestic game.

Saheba, who had played for Gujarat from 1981 to 1990, has also officiated in three Test matches, 51 ODIs and 12 T20 matches. He was also adjudged by BCCI as "the best Indian Umpire" in 2009-10.

First-time contracts (November 17)

The Cricket Association of Uttarakhand (CAU) became the first state unit in the country to provide annual contracts to its first-class cricketers. The association will also open two training centres apart from providing scholarship to Under 16 and Under 19 cricketers.

New Appointment

Suryakumar Yadav has been appointed the captain of the Mumbai team for the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. He led the team in the Vijay Hazare trophy as well and has now been retained in the hot seat for the T20 tournament, starting Friday (November 8).

Deodhar Trophy squads (October 24)

India A: Hanuma Vihari (c), Devdutt Padikkal, A R Easwaran, Vishnu Vinod, Amandeep Khare, Abhishek Raman, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Sandeep Warrier, Siddarth Kaul, Bhargav Merai

India B: Parthiv Patel (c&wk), Priyank Panchal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Baba Aparajith, Kedar Jadhav, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shahbaz Nadeem, Anukul Roy, K Gowtham, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Siraj, Rush Kalaria, Yarra Prithviraj, Nitish Rana

India C: Shubman Gill (c), Mayank Agarwal, Anmolpreet Singh, Suryakumar Yadav, Priyam Garg, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Mayank Markande, Jalaj Saxena, Avesh Khan, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ishan Porel, D G Pathania, Virat Singh

Karnataka clinch fourth Vijay Hazare title (October 25)

Abhimanyu Mithun picked up a hat-trick and ended with a five-wicket haul to restrict Tamil Nadu to 252 in the final in Bangalore. Abhinav Mukund made 85 while Baba Aparajith got 64 but no other batsmen chipped in. They, however, got a good start with the ball as Devdutt Padikkal fell for just 11 during the chase. Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul then scored unbeaten 112 for the second wicket before rain brought an early end to the game. Karnataka won the clash by 60 runs by VJD method.

Heartbreak for Mumbai (October 21)

Mumbai were knocked out in the quarterfinals of the Vijay Hazare Trophy despite having the upperhand in the contest before rain spoiled the show. Chhattisgarh made only 190/6 before Mumbai raced to 95 for no loss in the 12th over in the chase before rain forced the players off the field. With Chhattisgarh having more wins in the group stage, they pipped Mumbai to a semifinal spot and the rule came under a lot of criticism.

Yashasvi creates history (October 16)

Four days after Samson's exploits, young Yashasvi Jaiswal created history by becoming the youngest List A double centurion. Yashasvi hammered 12 sixes in his double ton and was dismissed for a 154-ball 203 as Mumbai beat Jharkhand by 39 runs.

A double for Sanju (October 12)

Sanju Samson registered his highest List A score when he hammered an unbeaten 212 against Goa. Samson hit 21 fours and ten sixes in his double hundred as Kerala won comfortably by 104 runs.

Shikhar Dhawan to bolster Delhi Vijay Hazare squad (October 3)

Delhi's Vijay Hazare campaign got a massive shot in the arm with India white-ball opener, Shikhar Dhawan, confirming his availability for the rest of the 50-over tournament. The 33-year old opener had taken a break upon the conclusion of the 3-match T20I series against South Africa but had indicated to the Delhi team management about his possible availability for the latter half of the competition. Delhi feature in the Elite Group B and have seen all their games ravaged by unseasonal rains in Vadodara so far. Dhawan is expected to feature in Saturday's (October 5) encounter against Baroda.

Shreyas Iyer at the helm of Mumbai's Vijay Hazare title defence (September 18)

Iyer will be tasked with taking the domestic powerhouses to back-to-back 50-over titles following their victory over Delhi in a tense final in Bengaluru last year. While most of the players from the previous season have retained their spot, two players from the Under-19 setup - Yashasvi Jaiswal and Atharva Ankolekar - have also been included. Sarfaraz Khan, who had represented Uttar Pradesh in the 2017-18 season also returns to the Mumbai side following a one-year cool-off. Ajinkya Rahane, who will be away with the India Test team, isn't in the squad.

Squad: Shreyas Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav, Jay Bista, Aditya Tare, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Shubham Ranjane, Eknath Kerkar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Tushar Deshpande, Shams Mulani, Atharva Ankolekar, Shardul Thakur, Siddhesh Lad, Yashavi Jaiswal, Kruthik Hanagawadi, Shashank Attarde

Wasim Jaffer, Vidarbha's interim captain for Vijay Hazare Trophy (September 15)

Regular captain Faiz Fazal suffered a hand injury during the recently-concluded Duleep Trophy and is expected to be missing from action, Sportstar reported. Wasim Jaffer will hence step in as the captain of side for the 50-over tournament.

Karthik to lead TN in Vijay Hazare Trophy (September 14)

Dinesh Karthik has been named the captain of Tamil Nadu for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy, while Vijay Shankar will be his deputy for the 50-over tournament. The 16-member squad also includes Abhinav Mukund and Washington Sundar. M Shahrukh Khan will be in the Team as Replacement for Murali Vijay till the time the latter joins the Team.

Rayudu to captain Hyderabad (September 14)

Ambati Rayudu, who came out of retirement two weeks ago, has been named Hyderabad's captain for the upcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy. He takes over the role from Akshath Reddy, while B Sandeep has been named his deputy.

India Red clinch Duleep Trophy (September 7)

Akshay Wakhare's fifer bundled out India Green for 119 in the second essay to help India Red clinch Duleep Trophy 2019, by an innings and 38 runs

Unmukt Chand, the 26-year-old Delhi batsman, has decided to shift base to Uttarakhand, where he will be captaining the side for the upcoming season. Having led the India Under-19 side to a world cup win in 2012, Chand promised a lot but hasn't been able to find success at the first-class level, and despite leading the side on several occasions, has failed to cement his place in the team.

The professional move (August 31)

Stuart Binny, the veteran all-rounder from Karnataka, has moved to Nagaland as a professional. He'll be joined by two other senior players from the domestic circuit - Maharashtra's Shrikant Mundhe and Yogesh Takawale. In other news, Mumbai's slow left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdullah continues his journey as a journeyman and joins Sikkim for the upcoming season.

Abhimanyu Easwaran is set to be the new Bengal captain for the upcoming domestic season. The selectors had initially mulled the idea of split captaincy, with Manoj Tiwary as the leader in the shorter formats (Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali meets) and Easwaran in charge of the Ranji Trophy side. But Tiwary himself felt that Easwaran should lead in all the formats and promised him full support.

It took just 58 days for Ambati Rayudu to make a U-turn on his retirement. Rayudu wrote to the Hyderabad Cricket Association's CoA that he was available for selection for all formats. "I (Ambati Rayudu) would like to bring to your kind notice that I would like to come out of retirement and play cricket in all formats," he wrote. Subsequently, the HCA CEO put out a release saying, "This is to inform you that Ambati Rayudu has withdrawn his announcement of retirement and has made himself available for the shorter format of the game for HCA in 2019-20."

KP Bhaskar returns to Delhi (August 30)

KP Bhaskar has been appointed as Delhi's coach yet again after guiding Uttarakhand to the top of the Plate division last season. Bhaskar's previous stint with the team ended with a war of words with the then Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir, who had accused him of breaking the morale of the young players in the side, soon after Delhi lost the final of Ranji Trophy 2017-18. Mithun Manhas, who had coached Delhi last season, refused to continue in his role.

KCA confirmed that the Robin Uthappa will lead the Kerala team in the Vijay Hazare one-dayers that will begin next month. The former Karnataka player, who represented Saurashtra as a professional for the last two years, will also lead the state team in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament that follows the Vijay Hazare. Meanwhile, KCA secretary Sreejith V Nair maintained that no decision has been taken regarding the leadership role in the Ranji Trophy. "We will evaluate Robin's captaincy once both Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy tournaments end. Ranji Trophy is beginning only in December. So we still have time to take a decision on Kerala's Ranji Trophy captain," he said.

Vinayak Samant re-appointed as Mumbai coach (August 26)

In a controversial move, the Mumbai Cricket Association re-appointed Vinayak Samant as the head coach. Samant had coached Mumbai to Vijay Hazare Trophy win last season, but came under scrutiny after Mumbai lost out in the group stage of the Ranji Trophy. As per Cricket Improvement Committee's recommendation, the offer was made to Sulakshan Kulkarni who declined it. According to a report in Mid-Day, Kulkarni was offered a contract of Rs 14 lakh when MCA had stated that the annual remuneration for the role would be for Rs 24 lakh. Samant, on the other hand, was given a contract of Rs 22 lakh, and he accepted the offer.

Karun Nair's last first-class century came in 2017 - in the Ranji Trophy semifinal clash against Vidarbha. He shrugged off poor form with 99 in the first innings against India Blue and then scored unbeaten 166 in the second innings. India Red also booked a place in the final by bagging the first-innings lead.

After a remarkable stint with Karnataka, pacer Vinay Kumar has decided to move base to Puducherry, signaling the end of an era in Karnataka cricket. Kumar, now 35, is best known for leading Karnataka to victories in the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy and Irani Cup for two consecutive seasons in 2013-14 and 2014-15. Kumar made his first-class debut for Karnataka in the 2004-05 season and has since picked 459 first-class wickets - the most by a pacer in the history of Ranji Trophy - at an average of 23.53. He also scored some handy runs down the order, as a first-class batting average of 21.45 and two centuries would suggest.

Just half a day of play was possible between India Blue and India Green in the Duleep Trophy opener. The teams shared points after no play was possible because of rain and wet outfield on the remaining three days.

Pink ball experiment curtailed (August 6)

Apart from the final, none of the Duleep Trophy matches will be played in pink ball. For a tournament that was otherwise struggling for relevance, with matches getting washed off, regional affinity out of question, teams willingly playing out draws and flat and slow pitches on offer, the pink-ball experiment was its most relevant aspect. Now, even that's dusted. Explaining the reasoning behind the move, Saba Karim, BCCI's head of operations, told Cricbuzz, "At this stage, the national team is playing only red ball cricket. So we want even the players who are in the reckoning to play with a similar kind of ball, in a similar kind of environment."

The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy - the domestic T20 event - will be played between November 8 and December 1, in order to make room for IPL franchises to take a look at domestic talent before the next player auctions, which is usually held in December or January. Last year, SMA was held in February-March, long after the player auctions were done. Eight days after the conclusion of SMA, India's premier domestic tournament - the Ranji Trophy - will get underway on December 9, and go on till March, for the first time ever. The Duleep Trophy will kickstart the 2019 season, running from August 17 to September 8. This is set to be followed by the three limited-overs tournaments - the Vijay Hazare Trophy (September 24 to October 25), the Deodhar Trophy (October 31 to November 4), followed by the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament.

© Cricbuzz

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