Ranji Trophy Final: Rival Coaches Chandrakant Pandit And Amol Muzumdar Get Ready For Battle Of Wits

Groomed in an unforgiving 'gharana' where there is virtually no place for the second best, Chandrakant Pandit and Amol Muzumdar are both as tough as nails mentally. In spirit, they are 'guru bhais', having learnt their lessons under the iconic Ramakant Achrekar. Both know how it feels to lay hands on the silverware. When the final of the Ranji Trophy starts at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday morning, one can be forgiven for thinking if it is being played between two Mumbai sides.

Pandit's Madhya Pradesh is basically a 'Mumbai Lite' or 'Mumbai Ultra' in terms of work ethic, vision and plans to accomplish the unfinished job of the 'class of 98', led by Pandit himself.

Facing them are 41-time champions Mumbai, who boast of India's most talented bunch of gen next batters in Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Arman Jaffer, Sarfaraz Khan and Suved Parkar.

All under 25 and ready to hunt down the MP bowling attack like a pack of wolves with the only bowler of repute being left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya, who has been outstanding throughout the season.

Goading them to "go for the kill" from the dressing room will be Muzumdar, eyeing his first Ranji Trophy as a coach and looking to stop the doyen of domestic coaches from winning an unprecedented sixth crown with three different states (after Mumbai and Vidarbha).

"Amol knows exactly how I think and what my cricketing philosophy is. Vice versa, I have more than a fair idea of how he would go about his job. The Mumbai cricketing philosophy is deeply ingrained in us.

"We have both learnt it the hard way," Pandit told PTI after his men demolished an under-prepared and out-of-sync Bengal in the semi-finals.

Muzumdar echoed the sentiments but desperately wanted the arc-light to shift