Live - Nair, Padikkal hit fifties; Shaw bags duck on Maharashtra debut

He last played a Test more than 18 months ago — and hasn’t come close to selection since.

In that time, Rishabh Pant has returned to full fitness and reclaimed his place as India’s first-choice wicketkeeper, while Dhruv Jurel has emerged as a capable understudy, now even pushing his case as a specialist batter.

Ishan Kishan, meanwhile, featured for the Rest of India in the Irani Cup, and N Jagadeesan has been around the fringes too — serving as reserve keeper during the England and West Indies Tests in Pant’s absence.

So where does that leave Bharat — the only one among them without even an IPL contract at the moment?

Earlier this year, he went to the UK to play amateur cricket, just to shred the frustration of missing out on the IPL and to keep himself busy. Even that stint only happened to come to him by chance.

With Vidarbha's Apoorv Wankhade unable to obtain a visa because he hasn't played enough first-class cricket to qualify, Ollie Steele, captain of Dulwich (the club Bharat played for), rang up an agency that has a good database of available overseas players. It's during this process that they'd identified Bharat, who had played more than the games needed to secure a visa. That he captained Andhra was an added bonus.

Anyway, back to the present and he's on 86 as Andhra are currently 181/1 v Uttar Pradesh in Kanpur. He's got Sheikh Rasheed for company.

Karun Nair celebrates his return to Karnataka after three years with a typically doughty half-century in Rajkot, along with Devdutt Padikkal. The pair have now put on a century stand for the third wicket after Dharmendrasinh Jadeja struck early for Saurashtra with the wickets of Mayank Agarwal and Nikin Jose.

Padikkal has been fluent, and has carried on from where he left off for India A last month, when he made 150 against Australia A in Lucknow. Straight off a flight from Delhi, he's looked compact for much of his vigil so far. He had a stroke of luck when he was put down at slip, but has looked extremely pleasing otherwise.

Karun has been his usual self, solid against swing and enterprising against spin, bringing out the sweeps and paddles, including one to bring up his half-century, his 38th in first-class cricket. Karnataka 128/2

Incidentally, it was Padikkal who in a way replaced Nair in India's Test squad for the West Indies series. Nair, 33, now has the unenviable task of scoring heavily all over again to remain on the selection radar.

Meanwhile in Srinagar....

It's been a seamers' morning at the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar. J&K's seamers have justified Paras Dogra's decision to bowl first, with Auqib Nabi and Yudhveer Singh reducing Mumbai to 74/3 before lunch. This included the big wicket of former skipper Ajinkya Rahane for 27. Since then, Sarfaraz Khan and Siddesh Lad have stabilised the innings as they've progressed to 114/3.

Mohammed Shami has expressed his displeasure at not being considered, despite doing whatever he should in terms of his fitness. All said, the fact is he has played in only two first-class games since the WTC final. Now, hoping to put behind the selection snub and wanting to make the most of whatever opportunities he gets, he has started the Ranji season for Bengal.

His first spell reads 7-0-16-0 as Bengal have kept Uttarakhand on a tight leash at Eden Gardens. Uttarakhand 82/3, with two of the wickets taken by Suraj Jaisal.

An erroneous BCCI scorecard has now been fixed, as has ours. We apologise for the confusion.

Atit Sheth, the Baroda seam-bowling allrounder, is on fire in Cuttack. Odisha seemed to have started solidly, with the openers racing away to 49 without loss. And then suddenly, five overs later, they're tottering on 49 for 4, with Sheth picking up two of those wickets.Odisha's hopes of a rescue is now pinned on Subranshu Senapati, the captain, and Rajesh Dhuper

Coming into the Ranji opener, he needed two wickets to get to the milestone, and he has picked up the first two Karnataka wickets to fall. They're 35/2, with Karun Nair & Devdutt Padikkal at the crease.

Over the past 12 months, Saransh Jain is one of just four players with the double of 300-plus runs and 40-plus wickets. In a country with an abundance of left-arm orthodox spinners, Saransh falls in the rare category of an offspin-bowling allrounder. And often, he's been the difference in bowling attacks for whichever team he has played for.

Straight off a Player-of-the-tournament performance in the Duleep Trophy, which Central Zone won, Saransh makes early inroads for Madhya Pradesh at the Emerald High International Grounds in Indore. Punjab are 41/3.

In Rajkot, Mayank Agarwal was given an early life on 1 when Jaydev Unadkat put down a tough return catch off a leading edge, but he manages to add just 1 more to his score as he falls to Dharmendrasinh Jadeja's left-arm spin. Looking to give him the charge and break the shackles, he hits one flat and straight to mid-off.

Karnataka 13/1 as Devdutt Padikkal, who linked up with the squad last evening following the India-West Indies Test in Delhi, comes in at No. 3.

In Trivandrum:

N Basil, with the new ball from the other end, sends back Arshin Kulkarni as he's caught at third slip. Maharashtra are 0/3 and in need of a rescue from two of their most-experienced batters: Ruturaj Gaikwad and Ankit Bawne.

Bawne is the second-highest run-getter among active Ranji players, behind Jammu & Kashmir professional Paras Dogra (9505), with 7244 runs, and the highest run-getter overall in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy with 4010 runs. This is testament to the 32-year-old's durability and consistency. He talks about his journey over the years with Deivarayan Muthu.

New team, new start. But it ends in a four-ball duck. Shaw plays all around a full'ish delivery that seams back in to hit him plumb in front as MD Nidheesh draws first blood for Kerala in Trivandrum. But that isn't the only strike in the first over. Nidheesh also sends back Siddesh Veer as he nicks off to the wicketkeeper. Maharashtra 0/2 after being put in to bat.