Ranji Trophy 2022 | Out of favour Ajinkya Rahane & Manish Pandey find form

Out of favour stars of the Indian national team - Ajinkya Rahane and Manish Pandey struck individual centuries on Day 1 of the Ranji Trophy.

While former India captain Rahane scored a patient 108 off 250 against Saurashtra, Manish Pandey was particularly impressive hitting a rapid 156 off 121 balls. Manish’s counterattacking innings came after Karnataka were put in a spot of bother by Railways by being 3 down for 110 runs.

Manish along with Siddharth KV stitched a partnership of 267 runs and put the domestic powerhouse in a strong position.

It needs to be mentioned that Pandey was out of favour in the Sunrisers camp despite being an experienced campaigner with them. He tanked very badly in the first phase of the last edition’s Indian Premier League as SRH lost several games on a trot.

On the other hand, this innings from Rahane might do a world of good for him as predicted by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly earlier. Ganguly publicly stated earlier this month that he would like to see both Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara go back in the domestic season to get rid of the chinks in their armour. Rahane’s innings today is a striking validation for the statement.

There were impressive performances in the Ranji today, with S Sreesanth making an appearance in the long format after 9 years. He picked two wickets in his first innings. Barring Sreesanth, Yash Dhull made a century on his First Class debut for Delhi against Tamil Nadu.