As the Jammu and Kashmir team arrived in the national capital to take on Delhi in their group stage Ranji Trophy fixture this week, the mostly unheralded side from up north came here with the conviction that they come with more than enough firepower to upset the more established and historically successful teams of the premier domestic cricket competition.
They beat Mumbai last year in a group-stage fixture and ran them very close, narrowly losing by 35 runs, when the two sides met again a few weeks ago. They arrive for the away game against Delhi, one point ahead of them, and every bit fancy their chances of leaving with a win and six more points against the beleaguered-looking hosts, who have failed to win any of their opening three games.
Last year, they reached the knockout stages for only the third time in their history, and this year, skipper Paras Dogra believes they should be aiming to win the Ranji Trophy altogether. It is a hefty claim, and while it may be the job of a captain to rally his troops with hyperbole, Dogra insists that with the local talent they now possess and the belief that some big recent victories has given them, it is within reach.
“Our performances have already shown that we can beat any side in the country,” Dogra said on the sidelines of J&K’s pre-match training session at the Feroz Shah Kotla grounds on Friday. “And this group of players, they are young and they have the exposure of playing all over the country now. They have shown that they have the belief to win any game, they have no second doubts. That is the change in thinking that has come about.”
Dogra effect
Being a domestic cricket stalwart, with over 10,000 First-Class runs and 33 centuries, Dogra’s experience has weighed heavily on a young side full of up-and-comers. The journeyman, who represented his home state Himachal Pradesh for 16 years before moving to Pondicherry and now J&K, credits a mindset shift within the team over the last one year as a reason for his bullishness.
The clutch victories against Mumbai and then Baroda that allowed them to qualify for the quarters, where they missed out due to Kerala’s narrow 1-run first innings lead, showed they are not far away from the top. Add to that the added motivation of getting to showcase themselves as match-winners for a competitive team in pressure games, that might catch the eye of a national selector or the coveted attention of an IPL franchise.
“Last year, we reached the quarterfinals, and seven of the squad played the Duleep Trophy. This is my message to them, if they think about performing consistently and together (collectively), the team will do well. Only then will they get noticed for bigger things,” Dogra said.
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The talent pool is decent. Chief among them are right-arm quicks Auqib Nabi and Yudhvir Singh. The former was the second-highest wicket-taker of the competition last year and has already nabbed 19 wickets in three games this season. The latter won’t be available for the game against Delhi because he is in a preparatory camp as part of India’s squad for the Rising Star Asia Cup this month, a clear sign of his potential.
Some of J&K’s specialists, like speedster Umran Malik and middle-order enforcer Abdul Samad, are more natural white-ball players, having already been picked for the IPL where they have dazzled in parts. Franchise leagues are a natural draw, especially the main one, but Dogra, says even players like them are building the fitness and patience to play with the red ball.
The group-stage game in Delhi, starting Saturday, represents plenty of jeopardy. The hosts are under pressure after failing to make much of their two home games, even losing the first-innings lead to Puducherry earlier this week. The typical flat and slow Kotla pitches have taken outright victories mostly out of contention but Delhi will have to push for one if they want to have a good chance of making it to the knockouts, which will give J&K plenty of chances to land blows of their own, especially considering their bowling is far superior to the hapless attack that the hosts have put out in the first three games.
