A total of 57 matches will be played in the league stage of Ranji Trophy 2021-22. Of these, 38 matches have taken place. Talking about the matches held so far, in the Plate Group, Nagaland (Nagaland Ranji Team) is at number one, Manipur (Manipur Ranji Team) is second and Bihar (Bihar Ranji Team) is at number three.
At the same time, Madhya Pradesh in Elite Group-A, Bengal in Elite Group-B, Karnataka in Elite Group-C, Mumbai in Elite Group-D, Uttarakhand in Elite Group-E, Punjab in Elite Group-F, Maharashtra in Elite Group-G And Chhattisgarh is on top in Elite Group-H.
The list of highest run scorers in the matches played so far is dominated by the batsmen of the teams of the plate group. Out of the top-5 of this list, 3 batsmen are from Plate Group team – Bihar, Mizoram and Sikkim. Sakibul Gani of Bihar is in this list. Sakibul Ghani has made his debut in the Ranji Trophy in this latest season itself. He scored a triple century in his debut match and created a new history.
Sakibul Gani had scored a century in the second innings of his second match of this season and was not out. Significantly, in the first innings of that match, he missed the century by 2 runs. He has so far scored 540 runs in 3 innings of 2 matches at an average of 270. This includes his 2 lively centuries. He hit a total of 92 fours and 2 superb sixes in 2 matches.
In terms of scoring more runs, the middle order batsman of the Mumbai team is currently Sarfaraz Khan at number two. He has scored 386 runs in 2 matches at an average of 128.66. It also includes a century of his. Taruwar Kohli of Mizoram is at number three, Kranthi Kumar of Sikkim at number four and Rohan Kunnummal of Kerala at number five.
Kohli, Kranti Kumar and Rohan have scored 343, 342 and 342 runs respectively in their 2-2 matches played so far. Rohan Kunnumal has hit 3 centuries in 3 innings. The Kerala team is at the second position in the group. He has won both his matches.
Talking about bowling, Shams Zakir Mulani of Mumbai, who remained unsold in ‘IPL Mega Auction-2022’, seems to have a component edge. He has taken 22 wickets in 2 matches played so far. He took more than 10 wickets each in both the matches. However, this all-rounder of the Mumbai Ranji team was included in the team of Delhi Capitals DC for a short time as a COVID-19 replacement of Axar Patel.
Parvez Rasool of Jammu and Kashmir is at the second position. Parvez Rasool has taken 14 wickets in the matches played so far at an average of 16.78. Aditya Anand Sarwate of Vidarbha, Mayank Mishra of Uttarakhand and Baltej Singh of Punjab are ranked 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively. Aditya has taken 14 wickets, Mayank Mishra and Baltej have taken 13 wickets each. It is worth noting that from March 3 to March 6, 2022, the remaining 19 matches of the league stage of the Ranji Trophy are to be played.
– Vinay Kumar