Ranji Trophy: Spotlight on Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara as Mumbai meet champions Saurashtra

Ranji Trophy match Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara have played in a long time. Desperate to salvage their Test spot after a series of failures, both India’s veteran batsmen will be under scanner when — in a case of sheer coincidence — they go head-to-head when Mumbai take on defending champions Saurashtra in the what is pretty much a make-or-break Ranji Trophy Group D lung-opener for both the teams at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad from Thursday. The struggling duo, who once formed the bulwark of India’s Test batting, saw their fortunes dip further in South Africa. Both will count on their vast experience in first-class cricket to bail them out of this rut they currently find themselves in. Rahane has scored 11,796 runs in 164 games at an average of 46.44, while Pujara, with 16,757 runs in 223 matches at an average of 50.62, has been the scourge of bowlers at the domestic level. Having scored as many as 85 first-class hundreds between them, both will hope that this is the game that ends their run drought for good.

While the spotlight will firmly be on Rahane and Pujara, another man fired up to prove a point will be Saurashtra skipper Jaydev Unadkat. When the Ranji Trophy was last held in the 2019-20 season, the 30-year-old left-arm seamer played a stellar role in Saurashtra winning the title, bagging a record haul of 67 wickets in 10 games at 13.23 to finish as the highest wicket-taker of the tournament. Despite his magnificent show, Unadkat has been consistently snubbed the selectors. Also itching to remind the selectors about his presence will be Unadkat’s pace bowling partner Chetan Sakaria. Post an impressive show in the first leg of last year’s IPL, the 23-year-old left-arm seamer was picked for