By Karan Agrawal 
The penultimate round of Ranji Trophy group stage matches was lit up by the return of India’s test regulars with names like Rohit Sharma Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Siraj, and Ravindra Jadeja making a comeback for their respective teams. The hype around the second last round of group stage fixtures was the talk of the town as it provided the opportunity for players like Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill to get back into form before the crucial three-match ODI series against England at home which will be followed by the Champions Trophy.
The Performance
Amid all the expectations Ravindra Jadeja was the only player who was able to deliver a solid performance for Saurashtra in their game against Delhi. Jadeja picked up his 35th five-wicket haul in first-class cricket. The left-arm spinner was visibly thrilled with his performance as he took to social media to post about the same with the caption35th ball in FC cricket.”
The Effort
Jadeja who is one of the most experienced spinners in the Saurashtra team got good support from Dharmendra Jadeja who also picked up three wickets as the duo bundled out Delhi for just 188 runs helping Saurashtra take early advantage as the team ended the day on 163-5. For Delhi, it was their captain Ayush Badoni and former India U19 captain Yash Dhull who showed some fight with the former being the only batter to score a half-century where as the latter played a steady knock of 44 runs.
The Disappointment
If we talk about the performance of other test regulars on day one of the Ranji Trophy matches it was a no-show as the majority of the players got out without making a significant contribution. The opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal was the first to disappoint as the duo was dismissed for a single-digit score with Yashasvi contributing just 4 runs to the team’s total of 120 who was followed by Shreyas Iyer who managed to score only 11 runs. In other matches, India’s ODI vice-captain Shubman Gill who was playing for Punjab against Karnataka was dismissed for a score of 4 with Punjab getting bowled out for 55.