Ranji Trophy: Class-heavy Delhi take on in-transition Rajasthan

A class-heavy Delhi face a in-transition Rajasthan in their third Ranji Trophy match on Sunday.

Rajasthan can draw on Vineet Saxena’s (L) experience and will hope that Ashok Menaria fulfils his potential this season.(Source photo by Praveen Khanna)

Rajasthan can draw on Vineet Saxena’s (L) experience and will hope that Ashok Menaria fulfils his potential this season. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)

A straightforward comparison of the First-Class hundreds Virender Sehwag has to his name vis-a-vis that of the entire Rajasthan team sums up the mismatch in this Group B game to be played at the Feroz Shah Kotla from Sunday. Sehwag has reached the three-figure mark 39 times, 23 of those in Test cricket.

The tally of the Rajasthan batsmen is 35. We are not even going into the number of hundreds Gautam Gambhir, Mithun Manhas — back after recovering from injury — Unmukt Chand and Rajat Bhatia have scored in First-Class cricket. Rajasthan will find themselves against perhaps the best batting line-up in domestic cricket.

With Pankaj Singh, the tall fast bowler who was part of India’s Test tour to England, in their ranks the disparity in strength won’t be felt as much in the respective bowling departments as it will be in the batting.

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This season Rajasthan is without Hrishikesh Kanitkar, who captained the side when they won back-to-back titles in 2010-11, 2011-12. Kanitkar’s last game for Rajasthan came against Tamil Nadu last season and his absence will only widen the void left by the exits of Aakash Chopra and Rashmi Ranjan Parida, both key members in their winning campaigns.

In such a scenario the responsibility of holding the Rajasthan innings together will rest on the shoulders of Robin Bist (61 First-Class matches), Vineet Saxena (102 matches) and India’s former Under-19 World Cup skipper Ashok Menaria.

The good news for Rajasthan is that all these batsmen have been in good touch. Saxena and Menaria scored hundreds in the previous game against Saurashtra while Bist followed up his unbeaten 124 against Gujarat with 99 against Saurashtra.

Bist and Saxena were the supporting acts when Chopra and Kanitkar scored two centuries each while Parida had one as the team won the title in 2010-11. Bist stepped it up the following season with 1034 runs, including four centuries. Chopra and Saxena slammed two each while Kanitkar scored more than 500 runs.

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In short, the Rajasthan batting line-up had depth and experience and while the current team is capable they don’t inspire the same kind of confidence that Rajasthan’s champion sides did.

Taking a look at their current season, Rajasthan played Saurashtra and Gujarat, and have collected just four points. Against Gujarat they conceded the lead and with that the three points, but bagged three against Saurashtra.

However, by making 437 against Gujarat, enforcing a follow on, Rajasthan showed that they are no pushovers.

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