The stone-dead silence in Tamil Nadu’s dressing room in contrast to the jubilation in Uttar Pradesh summed up everything about where these teams stand as the Ranji Trophy takes a pause for white-ball tournaments.
On a comatose pitch, the fifth round fixture in Coimbatore had come down to first-innings lead. Having put on 455 on board, Tamil Nadu had Uttar Pradesh at 191/5 then at 348/7 and 407/8. And UP were on 443, when Rinku Singh, who carried his team on his shoulders with career-best 176, fell, leaving the last pair needing 13 runs for the lead. A dropped catch, couple of missed chances for run-out all were on display, summarising the season TN have had as the last pair of Aaqib Khan and Kunal Tyagi overhauled the hosts’ total to get three crucial points and give an outside chance of making the knockouts.
For TN, which has just five points from 5 matches, the only saving grace is Nagaland and Chandigarh, with just one point each, are already in the relegation zone. And only Himachal Pradesh and Assam have fewer points than them with four.With Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) deciding that M Senthilnathan won’t continue as head coach for the white-ball tournaments overnight, a team whose confidence has taken a severe dent appeared to lose the plot again.
Resuming on 98, Rinku got to his second first-class century of the season and carried on with the sole job of taking UP across the line. With the tail-enders providing support, he wasn’t in any rush, but at the same time kept signalling the intent. The 17 boundaries and half-a-dozen sixes said as much in his 247-ball knock. Whenever a wicket fell, he ensured the pressure was duly put on TN which failed to rise up to the occasion again as UP got the lead at the stroke of lunch.
For TN, the question is what next? Their coach Senthilnathan leaving the dressing room won’t fix the actual issues that are confronting them. Frontline batsmen are unable to get behind the line of the ball, struggle against even a slight seam movement, and are seemingly unaware of how to pace an innings. The fast bowlers haven’t made use of the new ball, the struggle of the spinners, and a First Division system that needs serious introspection… the list is endless. And it isn’t going to be any easy for M Venkataramana in Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s starting next week.
Apart from the on-field performances, the selection calls need equal introspection and it has been muddled across formats. The decision to tell Vijay Shankar that he has no future in the team has already proven to be a costly mistake. The players who were supposed to benefit out of his absence – Shahrukh Khan and Mohamed Ali — were given a chance and dropped. If Vijay was considered old at 34, the selector called-up a 36-year-old pacer Saravana Kumar who played a first-class match here after three years. D Deepesh, the promising pacer who performed exceedingly well for India U19 in Australia, was never picked for the senior side and played age-group when his peers like Ayush Mhatre, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Hemchudeshan J and RS Ambrish played Ranji Trophy.
Even for the upcoming SMAT, there are questionable choices and omissions that even one of the batsmen even questioned his own spot in the T20 squad. For a state unit that boasts about the best domestic T20 league in TNPL, the performances in the tournament seem to be overlooked for the state team. The likes of Nidhish Rajagopal, R Rajkumar, Vimal Khumar who shone bright in the middle-order haven’t earned a call-up and instead Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Andre Siddarth and Rithik Easwaran have made the cut. Having won the SMAT thrice, in the last two seasons TN has fallen behind which have even left the support staff scrambling to find which player fits a particular slot.
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To cap it all, they have named Varun Chakaravarthy captain of the side when he won’t even feature in all the group matches. Even his participation in the tournament is said to be far from certain because of international commitments. Good teams are envisioned by selectors, but it has been clearly lacking. Having been relieved of his duties, Senthilnathan may actually be thanking his stars.
Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 455 & 103/2 drew with Uttar Pradesh 460 (Rinku Singh 176; P Vidyuth 4/73, R Sai Kishore 3/99).
