‘Go back to Ranji Trophy and perform…’: Ganguly’s firm advice to Rahane and Pujara

Former Indian skipper and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly is confident that the veteran duo of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane will find form after playing Ranji Trophy ahead of the upcoming two-match Test series against Sri Lanka.

Pujara and Rahane have been under immense scrutiny courtesy of their extended lean patch in the longest format of the game. The duo managed just a solitary 50+ score between them across six innings during India's 1-2 series defeat in South Africa last month.

Amid calls for the axing of the experienced duo, Ganguly has thrown his weight of support behind them as he expected them to find form in the upcoming Ranji Trophy.

Speaking to Sportstar, Ganguly said, "Yeah, they are very good players. Hopefully, they will go back to Ranji Trophy and score a lot of runs, which I am sure they will. I don't see any problem (for them to go back to domestic cricket after playing so much international cricket),"

Meanwhile, after a two-year hiatus, the Ranji Trophy will finally get underway this month. The premier FC competition didn't take place last season due to Covid and was originally postponed for this season as well.

However, the tournament will finally get underway with the first phase set to take place from February 10.

Speaking about the difficulties in hosting a grand tournament like Ranji Trophy, Ganguly said, "Ranji Trophy is a huge tournament, and we have all played the tournament. So, they, too, will go back there and perform. They have played the tournament in the past when they were only playing Test cricket and were not part of the ODI or limited-overs team. So, that won't be a problem," 

"So keeping all these things in mind, it was actually a challenge to organise any tournament. We organised the Cooch Behar Trophy and there came the third wave. On the first day itself, 50 players contracted the virus. So, it is not easy. But we are lucky that we can still conduct tournaments. We still have our fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly." he added.

The 64-game season will be played over 62 days across two different phases. The first phase will comprise 57 matches while the second stage will have four quarter-finals, two semi-finals and the summit clash.

4 teams each will be divided into eight elite groups while the remaining will form the plate division.

This will be a great opportunity for Pujara and Rahane to get some runs under their belt ahead of the home series against Sri Lanka next month.