Ranji Trophy 2015-16: 8 renowned Indian cricketers who have changed their teams

Ranji Trophy 2015-16 starts October 1 and this season is all set to witness some of the biggest transfers with eight big names changing their long-term bases, and donning new state caps.

Ranji Trophy 2015-16 starts October 1 and this season is all set to witness some of the biggest transfers with eight big names changing their long-term bases, and donning new state caps. Suvajit Mustafi looks at those eight players.

 

1.  Virender Sehwag (From Delhi to Haryana) 

The Sehwag family hails from Haryana but the ‘Nawab of Najafgarh’ is settled in Delhi and right since his early steps in the game, he has been synonymous to Delhi cricket. The move was anticipated as Sehwag off late hasn’t been in best of terms with Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA). Delhi’s loss will be Haryana’s gain. A young side, they have a potent bowling attack led by Mohit Sharma and Amit Mishra, and now the presence of the Sehwag will not only boost their batting but also the morale.

Sehwag still is hoping for a comeback and in the last season he scored runs at over 50. With India’s top-order looking settled, it’s almost curtains on Sehwag’s international career.

 

2.  Pragyan Ojha (Hyderabad to Bengal)

Over the years Ojha has been a stalwart for Hyderabad cricket, which holds a lot of prestige and heritage. In fact, Ojha’sInspired by the feats of inspiration was 90s Hyderabad star left-arm spinner Venkatapathy Raju, Ojha is a man who believes in  and the former’s toilhard work; his toil and success in domestic cricket for the south-Indian side won him the national cap. Now hHe is all set to play for Bengal and all it needed to convince him was a request from Sourav Ganguly. Making the switch, Ojha said, “I was offered to play for Bengal by Sourav [Ganguly], and I could not turn it down.”

 The 29-year-old can consider himself unlucky: as despite bagging a manMan- of- the- match Match for his 10-wicket haul in Sachin Tendulkar’s farewell Test in 2013, he was dropped from the national side. He will hope that his outing for Bengal will bring him some luck.

 

3.  Wasim Jaffer (Mumbai to Vidarbha)

It’s safe to call Jaffer,  ‘King of Ranji Trophy’. In a career spanning 19- years, he Jaffer has piled up close to 17,000 First-Class runs and is the highest individual run-getter in Ranji Trophy. A mainstay and the vertebrae of Mumbai’s batting for close to two decades, Jaffer has decided to move on to Vidarbha.

 With almost no hopes of making an international return,comeback Jaffer’s presence will help young Vidarbha batsmen to hone their skills and also strengthen their batting line-up that already consists of the former Tamil Nadu run-machine SSubramaniam Badrinath.

 

4.  Mithun Manhas (Delhi to Jammu and Kashmir)

After Sehwag, Delhi is set to lose another of its stalwart —in MithunManhas. After 17 years with the Delhi side, Manhas, a native of Jammu, will now appear for Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) side in the upcoming Ranji season. J&K have been relegated to Group C and Manhas’ presence will add a lot of solidity to their batting.

 

5.  RP Singh (Uttar Pradesh to Gujarat)

For years, he RP has inspired many around Uttar Pradesh (UP) to take up fast bowling. One of the cores of the successful UP side in the recent years, RP is now set to make his connections with the state of Gujarat stronger. He is Ahmedabad’s son-in-law, as he is married to Devanshi Popat, a resident of the city.

 RP will play for Gujarat, which already is boosted by the presence of former Mumbai cricketer Ramesh Powar and former Andhra Pradesh cricketer Venugopal Rao. RP’s addition will definitely strengthen the bowling.

 

6.  Sarfaraz Khan (Mumbai to Uttar Pradesh)

The 17-year-old became a household name this season during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015, when he played a crucial role in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) success in the tournament. Already destined to be the ‘next big thing of Mumbai cricket’, Sarfaraz pulled up a surprise by deciding to move to his father-cum-coach’s home state, UP.

 In hindsight, it might turn out to be a good decision considering the fact that it may have been difficult to make it to the batting heavy- full-strength Mumbai side.

 

7.  Dhiraj Jadhav (Assam to Goa)

A decade back Jadhav was a part of the Indian squad, but he never made it to the XI (he even replaced Sachin Tendulkar once). For long he was in contention of being an India opener but lost the race with Gautam Gambhir. However the Maharashtra cricketer opted to play for Assam in 2008-09 Ranji season. After six seasons with Assam, he has now decided to move to Goa. His former Maharashtra teammate Hrishikesh Kanitkar, who announced his retirement from First-Class cricket earlier this year, has joined the side as its coach.

 

8.  Robin Bist (Rajasthan to Himachal Pradesh)

Bist is one of the young exciting players in the domestic circuit, whose name has been often discussed by the national selectors. He started his youth career for Delhi, before moving to Rajasthan and scoring plenty of runs for them.

Not happy with the current state of affairs in Rajasthan cricket due to the Lalit Modi-saga, Bist has decided to move to Himachal Pradesh (HP). The side has done well in the last few years and Bist’s presence will further help. It’s a sensible decision considering BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur runs the state association.

 

(Suvajit Mustafi consumes cricket for lunch, fiction for dinner and munches numerous other snacks throughout the day. Yes, a jack of several trades, all Suvajit dreamt of was being India’s World Cup winning skipper but ended up being a sports writer, author, screenwriter, director, copywriter, graphic designer, sportsmarketer , strategist, entrepreneur,  philosopher and traveller. Donning so many hats, it’s cricket which gives him the ultimate high and where he finds solace. He can be followed at @RibsGully and rivu7)

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