Better pitches, bolder strategies, more results

Neutral venues resulting in logistical nightmares, two-day finishes on doctored pitches that offered the home team an advantage, and insufficient breaks between matches were some of the major complaints teams had after the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy. In a bid to address the issues, the BCCI reverted to the home-and-away format, scheduled decent breaks between matches, and asked its grounds and the pitches committee to oversee pitch preparations. Have the complications reduced? Five rounds into the Ranji season, ESPNcricinfo takes stock.

The appointment of neutral curators has reduced the possibility of home teams tailoring surfaces to suit their strengths, evident in the number of teams that have conceded the advantage at home. Tamil Nadu conceded the lead to Andhra at home and Odisha away; Mumbai lost out on three points against Tamil Nadu and Baroda, similarly. Saurashtra, who openly admitted to playing to their strengths two seasons ago, have brushed aside opponents both home and away. Ditto with Karnataka. Overall, the stronger teams have found ways to tweak their winning formula regadless of conditions.

"They've all been the traditional surfaces, ones that are good to bat on initially and slowly bring spinners into play going into days three and four," says Piyush Chawla, the second-highest wicket-taker of the competition so far. Chawla, who moved from Uttar Pradesh to Gujarat, had two wickets in two games last season. In 2015-16, bowling on green tops or paata surfaces, he had eight in 10 matches. This season, he has 27 wickets in four matches, a turnaround he attributes to the presence of a better balance for bowlers, particularly spinners.

"What we've seen is the character of the surfaces in the west hasn't been tampered with. Red soil surfaces offer bounce, and it's been consistent. We haven't come across any under-prepared surfaces in the games we've played."

Sanath Kumar, the Andhra coach, was relieved for a change at not having to answer questions on pitches and two-day finishes. "That's what we kept doing all through last year," he laughs. "This year, the surfaces have been consistent. We haven't come across any blatant tampering of surfaces in our away games. We have no complaints. Some pitches have been more responsive than the others, but they have all largely been excellent cricket surfaces."

The need to finish in the top two has resulted in a change in mindsets, with teams no longer happy to sit on first-innings leads. After five rounds of this season, the outright result percentage is 55 - significantly higher than the 46.15 at a similar stage last year.

"The nature of the format has surely contributed to teams showing that urge and being bold, but another factor I feel, and we haven't highlighted it enough is, the extra rest days that we've had this year, has been a welcome change for the bowlers," explains Manoj Tiwary, the Bengal captain. "Irrespective of how much the batsmen make, you have to pick 20 wickets. Our bowlers, Ashok Dinda and Mohammed Shami have done a lot of bowling. What the extra day's break and less travel-hassle this season has done is it has made our thinking and approach much simpler if we have to contemplate enforcing the follow-on. The bowlers are that much fresher."

While reverting to the old format hasn't necessarily reduced the number of three-day finishes - eight from 58 matches (the two abandoned games in Hyderabad haven't been considered) as compared to six from 52 after four rounds last season - the trend, according to many teams, should be attributed to the nature of the format.

Sample this: Last season, only three teams - Karnataka, Jharkhand and Hyderabad - had more than three wins in the season. All of them made it through to the knockouts. This time, already five teams have three wins. With two more rounds remaining, this could see an increase.

In Group B alone, Saurashtra, defending champions Gujarat, and Kerala are huddled together at the top with three wins. While this may have almost guaranteed qualification last season, this season one of them will miss out.

"Teams fighting so closely for points is because everyone knows opportunities to come back is that much harder," Chawla says. "If you lose one game because of weather, even though these may not be in your hand, it makes it tougher. From Gujarat's point of view, we haven't gone out of the way to send out a message saying we have to play aggressively or positively. We let the individuals decide depending on situations. You can't decide before a game that it will be an outright game. If there are pockets where you have to fight, so be it. At an individual level, however, I do feel players realise the need to drive the game forward."

Another increasing trend has been bold third-innings declarations at the risk of losing full points. Tamil Nadu tried to ignite the game after conceding a lead against Andhra, by declaring on the final day. Andhra nearly made a fist of it, but lost seven wickets before managing to escape with a draw. In the recently concluded round, there were two such instance. In Group C, Andhra scored at over five in their second innings and declared on the fourth day to set Tripura a target of 322, and the latter turned it into a contest by going for the chase - they ended on 272 for 5, having scored at 4.85 runs per over. In Group D, Vidarbha's rapid second-innings score of 223 for 6 left Services with 292 to get on the final day, but they floundered and were dismissed for 99. This drive has manifested itself through the marginal increase in scoring rates - 3.21 as compared to 3.08 in 2016-17.

The schedule in its current form doesn't allow for abandoned matches to be replayed at a later date. Hyderabad, for example, lost out on their first two matches without even stepping onto the field because of rain and slushy outfields, and shared a point each with Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

The problem with the possibility of extending the current Ranji Trophy window to accommodate weather-affected matches is that it could stretch the domestic T20 tournament into February, when the IPL auction generally takes place. A T20 tournament at a later date, therefore, may not serve its purpose of being a ready reckoner for franchise and talent scouts for picking talent, and for players to showcase their ability.

J Arunkumar, the Hyderabad coach, felt the board could consider giving teams three points each instead of one for abandoned games. "If we had three points each for those games, it would've translated to one victory. The pressure on you in the other games is just a fraction less. Once we had just two points in our first two games, we knew every game was a must-win. In an already truncated league structure, these could prove costly."

"If teams will know they have to come out next day and bowl the number of overs they are short on the final day, they may not employ delaying tactics. You can't hide under such a scenario, so you may have situations where over-rates are normal," Tiwary explains. "We were denied an outright win against Himachal because they took their own time in the final session. Yes, I know this is stretching the calendar a little, but you could have lot of games decided on merit if this can be pulled off."

Earlier in the season, Delhi too were denied by Assam. Delhi needed 79 in 14 overs, but were stranded on 49 for 2, with Assam bowling only eight overs in the last hour. KP Bhaskar, the Delhi coach, ruled out lodging a formal complaint, but admitted the opposition were astute in tackling the situation while remaining within the laws.