Can J&K show they belong with the big boys?

Jammu & Kashmir

Where they finished last season

For the first time J&K made the knockouts, having qualified from the weaker Group C with four outright victories from eight matches. In the quarter-finals, they lost to Punjab.

Big Picture

In our teens, the pretense, the desire, the ambition is to play alongside, and against, the men. An exciting phase, no doubt, but boys quickly find that the degrees of separation can be overwhelming if they are not up to the mark. This season J&K are the boys among men. They will find out whether their amazing run last year, culminating in their maiden entry into the Ranji knockouts, was a one-off or a first step towards progression into the big league.

The challenge is immense. In the wake of the devastating floods in September, which also wrecked the state's cricketing infrastructure, J&K have been forced to play all their eight matches away from home. Last year the home advantage was crucial as J&K won three out of the four home matches. This time they are slotted in Group A, effectively the group of death, where virtually every opponent will fancy making the quarter-finals stage.

With such a hard task at hand, J&K will need everyone to contribute. In the last two years at least they have always relied upon the trio of allrounders in Parvez Rasool, Samiullah Beigh and Ram Dayal - the core strength and stability of the team. But J&K need more players, especially in the top and middle order, to stand strong and share the workload.

In Sunil Joshi, their new coach, J&K have found the right taskmaster. Joshi, the former Karnataka and India left-arm spinner, is known for his hard-as-nails approach towards work ethic. Joshi is a soft-spoken man, but extremely positive and tough. Having spent just a month with the team, Joshi has already laid out a road map, starting with a 12-day conditioning, fitness and skills camp in Nagpur, which players confessed was strenuous. If they want to play among men, though, J&K must grow up fast.

Player to watch


Umar Nazir: Tall and well-built, Nazir, a 21-year-old from Pulwama, can generate a lot of pace. He can move ball both ways, with his stock ball being the outswinger. He showed promise in his previous first-class match, only his third - the Ranji quarter-finals last year where he picked up a four-wicket haul in the first-innings, rattling the Punjab middle order.

Mehjoor Ali: Tall like Nazir at 6'2", Mehjoor's strength is also raw pace. He has a high-arm action, hits the deck hard, and is able to make the ball bounce from awkward lengths, something the Delhi pair of Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir found hard to tackle recently in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

Teamspeak

"Our challenge going to be playing bigger teams. Performing against the big teams will add value not only to J&K cricket, but also highlight a player's talent. We are here to play well. We are here to compete." Sunil Joshi, newly installed J&K coach, declares the team's intent at the outset of the new season.

Baroda

Where they finished last season

Mid-table in Group B with three wins and four losses in eight games.

Big Picture

Like last season, Baroda will once again start their Ranji Trophy campaign against Bengal. They will, however, hope the similarities end there, because results like last season could leave them stranded towards the bottom of the table, in a group that is probably one of the toughest they have played in recent times.

Coach Tushar Arothe has said that one of the first things the team will need to do is find the right home surfaces early on. Arothe hopes that more balanced pitches will help the Baroda batsmen find their groove early, unlike last season in which regular collapses in their initial home games brought the track under scrutiny.

A large share of the batting responsibilities will once again rest on the shoulders of openers Saurabh Wakaskar and Aditya Waghmode, who has been named captain.

Baroda's bowling is expected to be led by Munaf Patel, and they have strengthened their spin reserves by recalling left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh, who made his first-class debut for Baroda at the age of 14. Swapnil's last first-class match was in 2011. Irfan Pathan, who played three games as a batsman last season, is still regaining his fitness and could be a part of the side as the tournament progresses.

Player to watch


India Under-19 allrounder Deepak Hooda is an exciting prospect for Baroda this season. He was impressive during the Under-19 World Cup in February this year, finishing second on the list of run-scorers and wicket-takers in the Indian side. In the Vijay Hazare Trophy, he topped both the runs and the wickets tables for Baroda with 202 runs and 10 wickets in four games.

Teamspeak

"We found out our drawbacks from last season. The first games we played on a turning track, which wasn't very good because the batsmen needed confidence. For Bengal, we have prepared a good track." Coach Tushar Arothe

Gujarat

Where they finished last season

Fourth in Group A, behind Karnataka, Punjab and Mumbai. Were fourth in Group A in 2012-13 as well.

Big Picture

Gujarat narrowly missed out on qualifying for the knockouts in the last two seasons. The season before that, 2011-12, they had finished last in Group B of the Elite league. The team has taken massive strides since then without experienced players like Niraj Patel, Bhavik Thaker and Siddharth Trivedi. Parthiv Patel, the Gujarat captain, calls it the "transition phase."

They are driven more by youngsters now, such as Akshar Patel, Manpreet Juneja, Smit Patel, among others. Akshar's match-winning 64 in the Deodhar Trophy semi-final and regular wickets against Sri Lanka in the ODIs emphasised that his performance in the IPL was not a flash in the pan. Their other promising youngsters are pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Rush Kalaria, opener Priyank Panchal, and Smit, who would want to carry his strong run from Vijay Hazare Trophy to Ranji Trophy.

They have bolstered their spin department with Ramesh Powar after losing Rakesh Dhurv to Vidarbha, and their batting will be led by veterans Parthiv and Venugopal Rao, just like last season. Their weakness would be their pace attack which lacks the experience their batsmen possess.

Gujarat's next aim would be to at least make the knockouts this season. They are in the relatively easier Group B.

Player to Watch

Twenty-nine wickets in seven matches in last season's Ranji Trophy, 17 in this year's IPL, ODI debut in June, and the leading wicket-taker against Sri Lanka in ODIs. Akshar Patel, who called himself a batting allrounder recently, will be Gujarat's trump card. However, if he is selected for the ODI tri-series in Australia in January, Gujarat will have to make do without him for their last four matches in January and February.

Teamspeak

"For me, the past two seasons were about transition. We were rebuilding the team, giving chance to youngsters while phasing out senior players who had failed to deliver. The transition is over now. It is time to deliver." Vijay Patel, the Gujarat coach.