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Valiant Post
November 22,2015

Ranji Trophy 2015-16 November 22, 2015 Piyush definitely has to raise the bar - Suresh Raina

It will soon be three years to the day since Piyush Chawla last played a Test match. Three months after that, it will be five years since he last played an ODI. Chawla first appeared on the international circuit almost ten years ago now, but he has faded away and is nowhere near India selection for now.
This season, he has done little to change that, having played all six Ranji Trophy matches for Uttar Pradesh with only six wickets to his name. In a dominating bowling performance in which UP dismissed Gujarat for 100 and 275, Chawla was hardly required in the first innings and leaked 61 runs in nine overs in the second. Against Mumbai in the next round, he got to bowl 33 overs but conceded another 135 runs for one wicket. And against Tamil Nadu in the last match, he bowled 19 overs for only one wicket again. Overall, he has gone wicketless in six of the ten innings he has bowled in, and that does not augur well for any bowler the captain may want to fall back on, to utilise his international experience. "Definitely he has to raise his bar, he has to work hard," UP captain Suresh Raina said on the eve of their match against Punjab in Kanpur. "He is bowling well, but since he's not getting wickets it seems like he's not bowling well. Once you play for India and then for domestic, you have to work hard and your thinking is very important - how you respect the game, how disciplined you are in those things. He has worked really hard in the last two games that I have seen against Mumbai and Tamil Nadu." Chawla's run has been better in T20 cricket, admittedly: he was the second-highest wicket-taker for Kolkata Knight Riders in the last two IPLs, and struck the winning runs in the final last year. His batting in this season's Ranji Trophy has been decent as well, but it may not keep him in the side for too long if he continues to fail to pick up wickets, Raina was clear about that. "If Piyush doesn't do well in two matches, definitely the selectors have to think what to do," Raina said. "Youngsters are doing very well for UP, so seniors have to step up their game and there's pressure in the dressing room. "He will have to step up. As a professional, when you do well in the IPL, you have to do it for UP - whether as a player of CSK, or of Air India team, or Indian team. I've learnt from my seniors that you have to give whatever you have. Cricket is one game in which you have to be disciplined, very committed and Piyush has that. He has the discipline and he concentrates a lot but he has to work hard on his bowling." The competition among the UP spinners has been heating up. Twenty-year-old chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav has taken 11 wickets in four matches, and left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar has two five-fors in four innings to take his wickets tally to 14. With a seamer-friendly pitch expected in Kanpur over the next four days, the pressure on Chawla is only mounting. Raina agreed but stressed he was confident of Chawla's skills, calling him a "match-winner". He backed the legspinner like a captain often does to boost the morale of his players, saying it was just a matter of time before Chawla performed. "He has been a match-winning player for us. For so many years he has done really well for UP. As a captain, as I've seen him play from Under-16s and Under-19s. "I think it's a matter of one or two wickets, he's a momentum player. He has always done well for UP or in the Challenger Trophy, or for India - like in the World Cup. Once he does well in one match, he will be on track." The Green Park pitch prepared for the match starting on Monday wore a green tinge, but was dry, and Raina was non-committal on what combination he would play. "I haven't seen the wicket yet and will decide the team composition tomorrow morning after seeing the wicket because it might change overnight. I'll see it in the morning and go by my instinct. "As a captain I now have a chance to think about how to go about things, so I need to find the winning combination. There are two matches and if we win those, we will qualify [for the knockouts] I guess. So we need to do really well." And so, for Chawla, right now it is not about whether he can make an international comeback sometime soon, but if he can retain his place in the UP XI. And there's only one way to do it - take wickets.

Valiant Post

November 11,2015

Ramesh Powar to retire after 2015-16 Ranji Trophy

Off-spinner Ramesh Powar has announced he will retire from all forms of cricket at the end of the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy season. Thirty-seven-year-old Powar, with 341 Ranji wickets till date, has the most wickets among active bowlers in the tournament.He has played for Gujarat since the 2014-15 season, following a year with Rajasthan. Before that, he had represented Mumbai for 14 seasons. Between 2004 and 2007, he had played for the country too, in two Tests and 31 ODIs, taking six wickets in the longest format and 34 in the one-dayers. Handy with the bat, he also has an ODI fifty.

Powar's decision allows him to play in the Masters Cricket League in January; the tournament rules require a player to be retired from all forms of competitive cricket, including the IPL, to participate."After leaving Mumbai, I thought I'll keep on playing, but then again I've thought it can't keep going this way," Powar told ESPNcricinfo. "There has got to be some motivation. If you aren't going to get picked for India, you can't just keep on playing. So I just thought I'll rather play cricket on my own terms.

"Luckily, there is the Masters League in January. Some of my old buddies are playing so I might enjoy that and have some fun. I'll play out this whole season for Gujarat though. The last league game ends on December 4. If we make the knockouts [which spill over to 2016], I'll speak to people and take a call."

Powar, understandably, picked out his time with the national team as his most cherished cricket memories. "To share the Indian dressing room with [VVS] Laxman, Sachin [Tendulkar], Rahul [Dravid] and Sourav [Ganguly] was the ultimate dream come true, because I never thought I'll play cricket professionally and to get where I got was a big thing for me."Through his career, Powar often attracted attention for a perceived lack of fitness and a fascination for funky sunglasses. "Lots of people thought I was looking for style in those glasses, but glasses only helped me stay focussed," Powar said. "I had put a lot of effort in my bowing and would bowl two hours, three hours every day. It's debatable [what people said about my fitness].

"When I was playing for India, someone asked me about my fitness. I said I can't be Mohammad Kaif or Yuvraj Singh. I'm Ramesh Powar, this is my frame and this is how I play cricket. I tried to lose weight during the West Indies series in 2006, and I lost my bowing also. I'm a classical bowler and I said I'd rather work on my bowing. I always tried to be fit through cricket and tried to be a safe fielder."Now, once he is done playing, Powar said, he would look to give back to the game by coaching young spinners.