Vid aim to overpower former coach

Hosts take on Madhya Pradesh at Jamtha Stadium

By Paritosh Pramanik

NAPUR, Nov 2, 2026

THE man who made them champions will now want to see the same team lose against his current side.

Chandrakant Pandit, who coached Vidarbha to back to back Ranji and Irani titles in the last decade, will now script a different plot to dethrone his former side from the top when the hosts take on Madhya Pradesh in their Elite Group ‘A’ Ranji Trophy match at VCA’s Jamtha Stadium from Monday.

Pandit, who was coach of Vidarbha in 2017-18 and 2018-19 title winning seasons, is now with Madhya Pradesh side and will sit in the rival camp when the Akshay Wadkar-led Vidarbha team takes the field.

It will also be an intriguing battle between the style of coaching as well. Vidarbha team has continued its dominance in last couple of seasons under coach Usman Ghani who guided the side to a Ranji Trophy, Irani Cup and also coached Central Zone to Duleep Trophy titles while Pandit has a proven record with many titles as a coach. The coaching acumen of the two will be at display in the next four days.

However, several winters have passed since Pandit parted ways with Vidarbha.

The hosts have grown in stature and their performance has only seen a northward journey. Vidarbha will have slight advantage as they will be aware of Pandit’s coaching style. If not all, at least five of Vidarbha players know how Pandit’s brain works.

Captain wicketkeeper-batter Akshay Wadkar, Atharva Taide, pacers Rajneesh Gurbani and Aditya Thakare, all have learned the success lessons from Pandit as they were part of the teams which won their Ranji titles. They would be eager to prove their former coach that his teachings are still afresh.

Vidarbha are on the top of Group A with 19 points from three wins while Madhya Pradesh are at the fourth spot (13 points) with a win and two draws.

Madhya Pradesh decimated Bihar in their last match by an innings and 174 runs. The match was completed inside two day with spinner Saransh Jain being the wrecker-in-chief taking a match haul of 13 wickets.

It would be an interesting battle between spinners Jain (16 wickets) and Vidarbha’s Harsh Dubey who has 14 wickets from three matches.

But the Rajat Patidar-led side will first have to negotiate Vidarbha pacer Nachiket Bhute who has collected 14 wickets in last three matches.

The pace department also has Praful Hinge, who was rested in the last game, Gurbani, Aditya Thakare, who has been included in the side for this match, and Darshan Nalkande.

Vidarbha are in search of a perfect opening partner for Aman Mokhade. They have tried R Samarth once. It would be interesting to see who walks in with Mokhade against MP.

For MP skipper Patidar, it would be a difficult ask to continue his rich form against such a talented bunch of Vidarbha’s seam and spin bowlers. The Madhya Pradesh skipper has hit two back to back centuries, after missing the opening game. 

But he will have to dig deep if he wishes to give his coach and team his third century of the season.