Strengthened Vidarbha eye qualification repeat

Finished the league stage with 24 points in Group B, tied in third place with Gujarat. Thanks to a better run quotient, Vidarbha qualified for the knockouts, where they succumbed to Tamil Nadu in the quarter-finals.

For most of the last two decades, barring an odd successful outing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Vidarbha was known for a plush stadium, an organised state academy and the rise of Shashank Manohar as an able administrator. But when it came to the big-ticket tournaments in domestic cricket, Vidarbha were merely making up the numbers.

Things changed last year. In an endeavour to take the team's performance to the next level, Vidarbha signed Paras Mhambrey as coach, and imported established players like S Badrinath, Ganesh Satish and Rakesh Dhurv. The move worked wonders as Vidarbha made it to the Ranji knockouts for the first time in 19 years.

Come 2015-16 and Vidarbha will be hoping to continue from where they left off last season. They have further bolstered their professionals' strength by roping in Mumbai stalwart Wasim Jaffer, in place of Dhurv. Jaffer is expected to not only continue piling on the runs but also groom young local batsmen, most of whom struggled last season.

Dhurv's exclusion will mean Akshay Wakhare will lead the spin attack. The offspinner impressed on turning tracks towards the end of the league stage last season. If he can be consistent even at the start of the season, the seam-bowling duo of Shrikant Wagh and Ravi Thakur will be relieved.

Wasim Jaffer, who is the highest run-getter in the Ranji Trophy, is no stranger to being in the limelight. But it will be interesting to see how he fares while wearing the logo of a team other than Mumbai. That too on the back of the most disappointing season of his career, primarily due to injuries.

Shrikant Wagh has been the most consistent Vidarbha player over the past half decade. The left-arm seamer has been leading the charge of their bowling and has also made the cut for India A in the past. Wagh, unsurprisingly, was the highest wicket-taker for his team last year. He will be gunning to repeat the feat this season too.

Paras Mhambrey and his team of support staff remains unchanged. Mhambrey, the coach, will have Suhas Pawar (trainer), Dr Ashish Agrawal (physio) and Aniruddha Deshpande (analyst) at his disposal.

Vidarbha, sans Mhambrey who was with the India A squad, qualified for the knockout stage of the Karnataka State Cricket Association's pre-season meet. Even though their own preparatory tournament, the Bapuna Cup, was affected by inclement weather, Vidarbha ensured a decent level of preparation by playing a match against Saurashtra's probables in Rajkot.

Vidarbha were one of the first teams to be announced, finalising their squad for the first three games on September 15. Jaffer is the big addition. Besides, the team has three new faces in Aditya Shanware, Aditya Sarwate and Yadvendra Tembhare. All the three newcomers have played in limited-overs tournaments for Vidarbha but are yet to make their first-class debuts.

S Badrinath (capt), Faiz Fazal, Ravi Jangid, Aditya Shanware, Amol Ubarhande (wk), Swapnil Bandiwar, Ganesh Satish, Wasim Jaffer, Aditya Sarwate, Jitesh Sharma, Shalabh Shrivastava, Yadvendra Tembhare, Ravikumar Thakur, Shrikant Wagh, Akshay Wakhare.

Fifth in Group A, with one win and five draws in eight matches.

The 2014-15 domestic season was a disappointing one for Baroda, as they failed to make it to the knockout rounds of the Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Some part of their mid-table finish in the Ranji Trophy was down to luck - the games against Railways and Madhya Pradesh were affected by weather - but the greater disappointment was their inability to win a single home game.

"In home games, on turning tracks we didn't bat well - that was a major area. We asked for a turning track and it didn't turn much but we could have batted well on the turning track, specially against Tamil Nadu and Mumbai," Baroda coach Tushar Arothe told ESPNcricinfo, stressing the side was keen on a fresh start.

A positive for them, however, was the performance of the younger players. Allrounder Deepak Hooda, who played the Under-19 World Cup in 2014, pacer Sagar Mangalorkar and left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh were the pillars of Baroda's campaign. They will be expected to match those performances again this season and Hooda will also have to juggle the responsibilities of vice-captaincy.

One Baroda player who will be keenly followed this season will be allrounder Hardik Pandya. He made his first-class debut in the 2013-14 season, and played four matches in the next season, but it was his blitzkrieg innings in the West Zone leg of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the IPL that put the 21-year-old cricketer in the limelight. Pandya has scored 285 runs in six first-class matches so far and with the possibility of a first full season ahead of him, his adaptability and temperament will be watched closely.

Sagar Mangalorkar began his first-class career with a match haul of nine-wickets against Jammu & Kashmir, and in the next four matches he took another 20 wickets to finish as the side's leading wicket-taker in the tournament. His performances included a six-for in his debut game and a seven-for in a low-scoring match against Tamil Nadu which, but for a batting failure, Baroda had a good chance of winning. It was the sort of performance that fit Arothe's description of last season being one where, "the youngsters did the hard work and the seniors chipped in".

Tushar Arothe is the head coach and will be assisted by Sukhbir Singh, with Afzal Khan as trainer.

Baroda's pre-season participation in the Nimbalkar Trophy in Pune was marred by bad weather but Arothe said the side played friendlies within the squad and local district games to gear up for the season.

The team for the first two games does not include pacer Munaf Patel and allrounder Irfan Pathan because they are recovering from injuries. Irfan is suffering from a niggle in the back, while Munaf has back spasms and needs three to four days to recover - there is a chance of him playing the second game. While Munaf played the first part of the 2014-15 season for Baroda, Irfan was available for the second. Neither bowler has played competitive cricket since then. Also missing is Ambati Rayudu, who is part of India's T20 squad that will take on South Africa between October 2 and 8. Their uncapped players include opening batsman Hitesh Solanki and wicketkeeper Bhargav Patel. Batsman Monil Patel, allrounder Murtuja Vahora and Babashafi Pathan have also been picked. While Monil has played only T20s for Baroda (the last one in March 2012), Vahora did not play first-class matches in 2014-15. Pacer Babashafi played his only first-class game in November 2013.

Aditya Waghmode (capt), Deepak Hooda, Bhargav Bhatt, Kedar Devdhar, Gagandeep Singh, Sagar Mangalorkar, Hardik Pandya, Bhargav Patel (wk), Monil Patel, Babashafi Pathan, Yusuf Pathan, Pinal Shah (wk), Hitesh Solanki, Swapnil Singh, Murtuja Vahora.