Champs Vidarbha start afresh

 

Special Correspondent

October 15, 2025

IT WILL be a fresh Ranji Trophy season and Vidarbha will enter the field with the tag of defending and three-time champions. The intensity will be at its highest when they open their campaign with an away game against Nagaland at Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru from Wednesday.

The match was originally scheduled for Sovima in Nagaland but was shifted to Bengaluru.

Vidarbha are placed in Elite Group A along with Tamil Nadu, Baroda, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland and Andhra. The tournament will be held in two phases. The first phase will start from Wednesday and end on November 19. The second phase will commence from January 22, 2026 and conclude on February 26 with the mega final. High on confidence Vidarbha will try to go the distance once again.

The Akshay Wadkar-led side clinched the Ranji Trophy for the third time in March defeating Kerala on the basis of first innings lead at VCA Jamtha Stadium. To cap it all, they then emerged as the best team of the country by claiming Irani Cup last month at the same venue. But all those heroics of last season will come to a nought when they take fresh guard on Wednesday at the venue most of the players are familiar with. 

“We want to start strong. An outright win in the opening game would set the tone of the tournament for us,” said skipper Wadkar while talking with ‘The Hitavada’ from Bengaluru.

“Even though we would be playing Nagaland who were promoted from Plate Group, we won’t take them lightly. The positive for us is that some of us have played at this venue during the Duleep Trophy and knows the condition well. But we won’t get complacent and will try to win the game session by session,” explained Wadkar about team’s game plan.

At least six of Vidarbha players have played at the venue during the Duleep Trophy while representing Central Zone. To add to it, Vidarbha coach Usman Ghani, also coached the title winning Central Zone team and knows a thing or two about the CoE pitch. Vidarbha will have to be on their toes for the next five months aiming to extend their dominance in the premier domestic First-Class tournament of the country.

The selectors reposed faith in the bunch which won the Irani Cup. While Danish Malewar was ruled out due to shoulder injury, there is only one addition to the squad in Ravikumar Samarth, the professional who signed the dotted lines last month. 

The Karnataka player, who played for Uttarakhand last season, will replace Karun Nair in Vidarbha set-up.

His inclusion will bolster the top middle-order. The batters are in a rich form with left-handed opener Atharva Taide, bubbling with confidence after his 143 against Rest of India. Another southpaw, Taide’s club-mate, Yash Rathod, last season’s highest scorer, too, has showed his prowess and will love to continue in the same vein. The last Ranji season’s highest runs scorer, hit a fluent 94 in Vidarbha’s Irani Cup win over Rest of India. In Duleep Trophy, Rathod was the second highest scorer with 374 runs and will take that confidence going into the opening game. The line-up also has professional Dhruv Shorey, Aman Mokhade and captain Akshay Wadkar who will man the middle order.

The bowling unit will be spearheaded by spinner and last Ranji season’s highest wicket-taker of the tournament Harsh Dubey. He will have another dangerous spinner in Parth Rekhade. The pace department will be handled by Aditya Thakare, Yash Thakur and Darshan Nalkande with Praful Hinge and Nachiket Bhute always ready to step in when the need arises. 

Nagaland, one of the weakest sides of Elite Group A, will hope their batters Dega Nischal, Hem Chetri and Sedezhalie Rupero and all-rounders Dip Borah, Imliwati Lemtur and Rongsen Jonathan put up some runs on the board against a quality bowling attack. Their bowling department will have Nzanthung Mozhui, Ronit More, Tahmeed Rahman and Vino Zhimomi.

This might be a cake-walk for the defending champions Vidarbha but the Usman Ghani-coached team won’t take their opponents lightly.

They have a simple plan: to register outright wins and top the group.

Vidarbha squad: Akshay Wadkar (Captain & WK), Atharva Taide, Aman Mokhade, Danish Malewar, Yash Rathod (Vice-Captain), Harsh Dubey, Parth Rekhade, Yash Thakur, Nachiket Bhute, Darshan Nalkande, Aditya Thakare, Yash Kadam, Shivam Deshmukh (WK), Praful Hinge, Akshay Karnewar, Dhruv Shorey, R Samarth.

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Danish Malewar out for three weeks

By Paritosh Pramanik

Oct 15, 2025

VIDARBHA were dealt with a blow before the start of their Ranji season with in-form batter Danish Malewar being ruled out due to injury.

Malewar was initially named in the 17-member squad led by Akshay Wadkar but could not board the flight due to a shoulder injury.

“He did not join the team due to shoulder injury. I don’t know when he got injured but it has been informed that he will be out for three weeks,” Wadkar told ‘The Hitavada’.

Malewar was in explosive form during the Duleep Trophy amassing 352 runs. Playing for Central Zone, Malewar slammed 203 in the first match against North East Zone. In the next match against West, the right-handed batter hit a fine 76 and then cracked another half century (53) against South in the final.

“But our team is ready for the new season and all are fit for the opening game. Professional Ravikumar Samarth has joined the team and has been given a task. We are confident that all will give their 100 per cent,” said Wadkar.