Late in December 2015, Oman had played five T20s against Saurashtra at Rajkot to prepare for the ICC World T20, 2016. While they were unable to record a victory, Oman would have taken back important lessons as they geared up for their first appearance on the world stage. Now, Gujarat are hosting Afghanistan for five T20 matches ahead of the World T20. With the big tournament coming up, the Afghans are locked in a preparatory series against India’s domestic one-day champions at Surat. Although they did not make it to the final in the Deodhar Trophy, Gujarat had a fantastic run in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. They had emerged champions in the domestic one-day tournament to make to it to the Deodhar Trophy. In the series against Afghanistan, they are not playing their regular captain Parthiv Patel and will be without all-rounder Axar Patel as well. Instead, it is a young team led by Manpreet Juneja, the right-handed batsman, which will take on Afghanistan. Seam bowler Chintan Gaja, who had a good run for the Gujarat Under-23 side, has also made it in to the squad. The series is a good opportunity for the youngsters in the Gujarat team to play against international players. The Afghanistan team is an experienced and strong unit and have challenged some of the top international teams whenever given the opportunity. Asghar Stanikzai is leading the team, which is without star player Mohammad Nabi. The five matches scheduled this month will be played on the 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th and the 14th of February. Jaydev Unadkat comes good for Saurashtra; takes them into Ranji Trophy semis Jaydev Unadkat had a relatively quiet Ranji season with the ball up until this month. In the quarter-final against Vidarbha, he rose to the occasion and helped take his side through to the semis. The previous season was tough for Saurashtra and as coach Sitanshu Kotak told BCCI.tv last week, they aimed to bounce back this year. Being one of the senior players, Unadkat answered the call for the big game and took nine wickets in the match against Vidarbha. In the 2015-16 season, he has taken 25 scalps in nine matches, nine of which came in the recent game. Earlier in the season, he had taken a six-wicket haul against Services, but hadn’t recorded a big performance after that with the ball. The left-arm bowler has been one of the most promising bowlers in the country since he played for India Under-19s in the 2010 World Cup. A Test debut followed later that year, but he is yet to make a comeback in the whites. He last played for India in November 2013. Such performances will bolster his hopes staying in the mix for a call at the higher level. One marked change in Unadkat’s game this year has been his batting. Coach Kotak had said that they have worked with the tail-enders to improve their batting so that they put up a good fight and help take the team forward. That strategy has certainly worked wonders for someone like Unadkat. He averages under 20 with the bat in first-class cricket, but this year, he has hit 282 runs in nine matches with two fifties. He now has a highest score of 92 and an average of 40.28. This shows that he has certainly improved as a batsman and raised the bar for himslef. Even during the quarter-final, he hit a quick 24 with four fours and a six. In the ongoing season, he has hit as many as 10 sixes. This is an added bonus to his bowling, which forms the backbone of the Saurashtra team. Jay Bista takes five wickets in Ranji Trophy quarter-final, but misses out on semis Mumbai dominated Jharkhand through their Ranji Trophy quarter-final last week to show that they mean business. While Shreyas Iyer and Akhil Herwadkar have been the main stay of the line-up throughout the season, the rest too have played significant and timely knocks to make Mumbai a successful unit.

Mumbai had set a target of 490 for Jharkhand, but had to do without Dhawal Kulkarni in the second innings. However, Jharkhand were bowled out for a mere 94 thanks to Iqbal Abdullah and Jay Bista. While Abdullah is a frontline bowler, Bista is known for his batting. In this game, he emulated his opening partner Herwadkar, who had taken a six-wicket haul earlier in the season and three wickets in the first innings of the quarter-final clash, by claiming five for 16 in the second innings of the match to seal victory for Mumbai. “The wicket was turning a bit. I am not a part-time bowler, but a regular bowler. I didn’t bowl in the first innings. When I got the opportunity, I wanted to bowl on the stumps and keep it simple,” Bista told BCCI.tv.

As Abdullah and Bista ran through the Jharkhand lineup, they merely expressed themselves. The only plan was to keep it simple, is what Bista believes in when it comes to bowling. “I believe bowling stump to stump. I don’t get that much turn. As I told you earlier, the wicket was helping, I bowled on the stumps and the wicket did the rest,” Bista explained. He does focus on bowling during practice as well. “I bowl in the nets for about half an hour or an hour to keep my practice,” the youngster said. Bista came into the Mumbai team with the weight of runs in age-group cricket behind him. He has scored one fifty, but this bowling performance will add to his confidence. Mumbai will now face Madhya Pradesh in their semi-final later this week. Although Bista isn’t part of the squad for the match in Cuttack, the experience of first-class cricket would serve him well as he looks forward to playing for the senior team in the future.

Mumbai’s squad for the semi-final that was named on Tuesday: Aditya Tare (Captain), Abhishek Nayar, Akhil Herwadkar, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Siddhesh Lad, Nikhil Patil (Jr.), Sufiyan Shaikh, Vishal Dabholkar, Iqbal Abdullah, Shardul Thakur, Balwinder Singh Sandhu (Jr.), Badre Alam, Bhavin Thakkar, Sagar Trivedi.