Ranji Trophy 2019-20, Standout player, biggest moment, best team – Jaydev Unadkat, Saurashtra, and Jammu & Kashmir

After another fine Ranji Trophy 2019-20 campaign, we have plenty of talking points to discuss. Here they are.

Standout player: Jaydev Unadkat

Jaydev Unadkat isn’t one of those players that usually comes in for much praise. In fact, through no fault of his own, he faces a lot of ridicule, given the enormous sums of money IPL teams have spent on him, which the public, the jury in this case, deem too much for too little. But in the Ranji Trophy this season, Unadkat has displayed just how important a quality self-belief is. He ended the season with a record 67 wickets, at a fine average of 13.23, and is the single biggest reason Saurashtra finally took the final step towards the title this year. Unadkat is a domestic legend. Ridicule him at your own expense.

Best team: Saurashtra

There are plenty of teams in contention for this. Bengal’s campaign was stellar, and it was a heart-breaking, from their perspective, to lose it all on the basis of the first-innings lead. Jammu and Kashmir are another team up for this award, reaching as far as the knockouts despite the most chaotic situations at home and throughout. However, the award goes to the title-winner. Saurashtra have been runners-up in three previous finals in the last seven years, and were increasingly building a reputation as the tournament’s nearly-men. They had three senior players falling sick in the lead-up to the final. And they had to deal with a very determined Bengal side who had reached these stages and failed before. They won, through plenty of graft, and it was nothing more than they deserved.

Special mention: Jammu & Kashmir

Eventually, Karnataka did eliminate them, and there was no real fairytale run to the final. But given all that had happened, it was extraordinary that J&K had made it as far as the quarterfinals. Their pre-season had been thrown into disarray when the government decided placed the region under lockdown – a situation that meant there was no broadband or mobile services for months – and one that sparked panic in many regions. However, the cricket went on, thanks to the dogged efforts of Irfan Pathan. They might have lost to Karnataka in the quarter-finals, but they had won the hearts of everyone around.

Standout quote

“You can’t be a one-trick pony.”

• Jaydev Unadkat keeps it simple on being asked of how he’d taken a truckload of wickets.