Ranji Trophy final: Favourites Mumbai eye 42nd title but Vidarbha are no pushovers

It’s a proper David vs Goliath story in the Ranji Trophy 2023-24 final which will be played between Mumbai and Vidarbha from 10 March at the Wankhede Stadium. Even though Mumbai’s last Mumbai Ranji win came in 2015-16 and Vidarbha have won two titles since then, in 2017-18 and 2018-19, Mumbai have enviable record in India’s domestic red-ball tournament. Mumbai are 41-time Ranji champions, the highest in the history. The second best is Karnataka with eight trophies.

Mumbai are in their record-extending 48th final, winning 41 out of the previous 47 finals.

More often than not when they make it to the final, Mumbai are the champions. Also helping their cause this season is the presence of established stars in the side which is usually always the case with the Ranji serial winners.

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With final just a few hours away, here’s how the two teams stack up:

Mumbai’ strengths

As discussed above, Mumbai have a lot of stars in their sides as compared to Vidarbha. However, not all of them have been successful this season. For example, Ajinkya Rahane, who has played 85 Tests for India, has led Mumbai admirable but only has 134 runs so far in the tournament. But Rahane has proven to be an able leader in the absence of crucial players like Sarfaraz Khan, who is with Team India, Suryakumar Yadav, who is injured, Shreyas Iyer missing a few matches, Prithvi Shaw returning towards end of the tournament. Shivam Dube and Shardul Thakur have missed half of the matches.

In the final, apart from Dube who is suffering from side strain, all the other stars will be available.

Even if someone is missing, the Mumbai lower middle-order has shown that it can hold on its own. Wicketkeeper-batter Hardik Tamore (252 runs), Tanush Kotian (481), Shams Mulani (290) and Tushar Deshpande (168) have on different occasions made crucial runs to bail Mumbai out.

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Kotian and Deshpande made centuries from Nos 10 and 11 spot in the quarterfinals against Baroda, while against Tamil Nadu in the semifinals, Thakur hit his maiden ton across formats when Mumbai were 106/7.

Mumbai’s weakness

The lack of consistent runs form the top order is concern and while the lower order players have regularly chipped in with runs, Mumbai cannot always rely on them to come good. In a big game, another failure from top order can prove to be costly.

Vidarbha’s strengths

Vidarbha as compared to Mumbai are less star studded but have players who have propelled the team to the final on the back of their consistency. Karun Nair (616 runs at 41.06), Dhruv Shorey (549 runs at 36.6), Akshay Wadkar (530 runs at 37.85), Atharva Taide (529 runs at 44.08) and Yash Rathod (456 runs at 57) have been the mainstay of their batting, while Aditya Sarwate (40 wickets) and Aditya Thakare (33) have led the bowling impressively.

Vidarbha’s weakness

Vidahrabha doesn’t have big India names as Mumbai and if that big-match experience proves to be the gamechanger then Mumbai may have an edge but Vidarbha have shown they can clinch comeback wins. It’s the what they did against Madhya Pradesh in the semifinals.

Players to watch out for

Shreyas Iyer: After all the drama and losing the BCCI central contract, Iyer is back in Ranji Trophy. He only three runs in the semifinals, but the final provides him an opportunity to score big and return back in BCCI’s good books.

Squads:

Mumbai: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Prithvi Shaw, Bhupen Lalwani, Amogh Bhatkal, Shreyas Iyer, Musheer Khan, Hardik Tamore (wk), Prasad Pawar (wk), Tanush Kotian, Shams Mulani, Atharva Ankolekar, Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Mohit Avasthi, Royston Dias, Dhawal Kulkarni.

Vidarbha: Akshay Wadkar (c&wk), Atharva Taide, Dhruv Shorey, Karun Nair, Yash Rathod, Mohit Kale, Harsh Dubey, Lalit Yadav, Aditya Sarwate (vc), Yash Thakur, Aditya Thakare, Darshan Nalkande, Siddhesh Wath (wk), Akshay Wakhare, Aman Mokhande, Umesh Yadav, Danish Malewar, Mandar Mahale.