“Do not stop any practice session until you have achieved what you set out to gain from that particular day,” Vidarbha’s in-form Yash Rathod tells a trio of enthusiastic teens who approached the southpaw for batting inputs. The 24-year-old also offered to call up his veteran teammate Karun Nair from the dugout to get them more insights on the ‘process’. “If you ask Karun bhai about something specific, maybe I’ll also learn something new from the chat,” Rathod tells the local Jaipur kids.
Rathod’s hunger extends to team Vidarbha, the Ranji team which is geo-located at India’s zero mile stone, but only recently been at the centre of cricketing excellence, previously overshadowed by Mumbai and Maharashtra in domestic cricket.
“The Indian system is so competitive that only fractions separate the top teams from the rest. At the right time, you have to be good,” coach Usman Ghani says after Vidarbha’s spotless day on the field. It is those decisive nuggets and fractions that Ghani and his bunch have polished and perfected over the last decade. The results have begun to show across the board where Vidarbha have progressively transformed from workaday participants to title contenders
On Sunday, last year’s Ranji Trophy runner-ups became the first team to confirm their berth in the quarterfinals of the ongoing edition after producing a fourth-day outcome that looked improbable.
Save for the defeat to Mumbai in the final last year, Vidarbha have only endured one loss in the league stage across two seasons. (express Photo by Lalith Kalidas)
Handshakes were expected by tea after Vidarbha recovered from trailing by 100 runs in the first innings to being 328 ahead on the back of captain Akshay Wadkar’s gritty 139 from No. 7 and in-form youngster Yash Rathod’s 196-ball 98. With 70 overs left to contend on a reasonably neat deck at the KL Saini Stadium, shared points were on the cards before Vidarbha’s bowling unit conjured a superb bowling turnaround. Adding onto his first-innings five-wicket haul, left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey ripped apart the Rajasthan top-middle order with another five-for. On a strip where the home side’s twin left-arm spin attack was stonewalled by Vidarbha’s lower-order, led by Wadkar, Rajasthan’s meek surrender ended at 107 in the afternoon, resulting in a 221-run defeat.
The win propelled Vidarbha’s tally to 34 points in six games with five wins and a solitary draw. Save for the defeat to Mumbai in the final last year, Vidarbha have only endured one loss in the league stage across two seasons.
“We are past our old days. Now, we are on the hunt for trophies and rank among the teams to beat in the country,” Ghani tells The Indian Express.
Building blocks
The process began at the old Civil Lines Stadium in Nagpur, 15 years ago, when the Vidarbha Cricket Association established the VCA Academy and hostel at the former Test centre. The academy would soon form the fulcrum handling children from all eight districts within VCA’s jurisdiction.
“Unlike bigger states like Rajasthan where you have ample boys and natural talent, back there we need to search for them from different regions. In that process, we started the residential cricket academy including boys from all districts. We spent a lot of effort there and the process is going on and that’s why talent is coming up. In Vidarbha, we have got to make them and don’t get ready-made talent,” Ghani explains.
Before his second stint with the senior side beginning last year, Ghani spent an extensive decade working on Vidarbha’s age-group sides to establish a well-oiled machinery at the behest of then VCA president and former ICC boss, Shashank Manohar. Senior side stars such as Wadkar, Jitesh Sharma, Rathod and many more have emerged through this age-group system before Ghani’s eyes, with Vidarbha cricket flourishing beyond the Nagpur nucleus.
Under the former Ranji batter’s guidance, Vidarbha stocked up the trophy cabinet in the junior circuit with two Vinoo Mankad Trophy titles and a Cooch Behar Trophy triumph besides two-runner-up finishes in six years between 2017-23.
“Around 80-90 per cent of the current senior boys are from that system. Winning titles at the age-group level matters because as far as talent is concerned, everybody plays the same way. What is important is that the right thing should be done at the right moment, and you should have the proper mental toughness to achieve that. So we have conducted a lot of mental toughness programs, arranging expert trainers from around the country,” says Ghani.
With Nagpur experiencing monsoon during the off-season, the team has switched bases since last year. “We have been going to Pondicherry as there is no rain there in June-July. We also requested the local association to rope in three to four teams for competitions so that our boys receive adequate exposure and improve their winning mentality,” he adds.
Vidarbha’s pragmatism has also had them go a step further in deploying three captains across formats this season, ensuring the rise of more format-specific stars without disrupting the balance. While their Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy campaign ended with a quarterfinal defeat to eventual champions Mumbai under Jitesh Sharma, the Nair-led 50-over side stormed through the Vijay Hazare Trophy before stumbling at the final block.
The runner-up finishes furrow Ghani’s brows, as do the lack of Vidarbha-certified India cricketers.
“We have won the Ranji Trophy twice, but how many of our boys are representing India? So that’s our aim now. Along with claiming those trophies across all three formats, we want our players to go up and play for the country. That is our motto,” Ghani affirms after ticking Vidarbha’s third knockout berth this season.
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