SubscriberWrites: Does First-Class Cricket in India Still Matter?

Shift in focus of the entire cricket ecosystem towards white ball cricket, especially T20s and IPL seems to have also resulted in a different pathway to make it to National Team.

General view inside the stadium during the match on 19 November | Reuters

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As the Indian Men’s Cricket Team rolls back home from South Africa after the keenly contested (and yet, inadequate) 2 Test Series to play Afghanistan in T20Is, the state associations competing for the oldest Cricketing Trophy in the country just finished the first round of games of the 2023-2024 season. 

On one side, there are stadiums filled with rapturous crowds, intense media scrutiny, corporates clamouring to spend increasingly ridiculous amounts and all the general pomp and glory encompassing Cricket in India. On the opposite side of the spectrum lies the Ranji Trophy, featuring 32 Teams, over 500 cumulative players in whites, in a form of Cricket that seems increasingly irrelevant in India, at least on the face of it. 

Cricket in India not too long ago looked to the Ranji Trophy (which began in 1934), as a measure of talent, temperament and character of a player. Players aspired to do well in the tournament, knowing fully well that a great season could potentially earn them a call-up to the National side, or at least, keep their name in the reckoning. And for the longest time, this rang true. Almost every single player of note to make it to the Indian Test Team over a period of time had to pass through the record books of the Ranji Trophy. 

So, is it still true today? 

A quick look of the last three cycles of the Ranji Trophy gives us some kind of indication on how things changed. After the Covid19 Pandemic caused a cancellation of the 2020-2021 season (first time in history) and resulted in a curtailed 2021-2022 season, the 2022-2023 season ending Feb 2023 was the first full season held in 3 years. It’s also interesting that in the same Pandemic years, the white ball tournaments of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (T20s) and the Vijay Hazare Trophy (List A – ODI) were conducted successfully by the BCCI. And of course, the IPL as well. 

The shift in focus of the entire cricket ecosystem towards white ball cricket, especially T20s and IPL seems to have also resulted in a different pathway to make it to the National Team. A stellar IPL season in recent times has almost guaranteed an entry to the Indian probables list. This then leads the player to be part of the white ball squads of the auxiliary National side when the main players are rested or the main squad is playing in key tournaments. If the player does well in these games, they’re part of the main white ball National squad. So far, the pattern seems fair and rewards players for their performances. 

However, what’s seen in recent times is that good performances in white ball cricket have also opened up a path to be called to the National Test side. The recent India squads for Tests against West Indies and South Africa also indicate the disheartening pattern. 

To further explain, coming back to the 2022-2023 Ranji Season, a quick look at the tournament statistics throws some surprises. None of the Top 10 run-getters of the tournament featured in the Indian Test team last year. In fact, we have to go all the way to No. 14 on the list to find a player (Ajinkya Rahane) who represented the Test team (WTC final and against WI). Though, it must also be noted that Abhimanyu Easwaran, who was 7th in the list of run-getters has been travelling with the national squad for a long time, but he is yet to get an India cap. Coming to the top wicket takers, the situation is mostly similar, with none of the top 9 making it to the National Test squad. Only Avesh Khan, ranked no. 10 got a national call-up (against SA, not featured in the XI). 

A notable exception to this has been the selection of the 2022-23 Ranji Trophy winning captain, Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra) to play against the West Indies in the XI. He was subsequently dropped against South Africa. 

At a time where experts consider T20 cricket to be a specialist format by itself, with the skill sets needed entirely different to ODI cricket, the First-Class specialists don’t seem to be getting their due. Year after year, these stalwarts of domestic cricket keep showing up, keep toiling, keep putting up excellent performances, just to go unnoticed in the National scheme of things. And with their skill sets being very specific, very few of them get IPL contracts. 

However, with England visiting India for a 5 Test Series next, BCCI hopefully looks into these performances as well and rewards them. Otherwise, we will end up having the ignominy of having many cases similar to that of Amol Muzumdar. 

Until then, we have to ask ourselves, ‘Does First-Class Cricket in India Still Matter?’

These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.