Assam Cricket Team: India Domestic Trophy Challenge

[LozzyD903]

The Assam Cricket Team first joined the Ranji Trophy in the 1948-49 season. In the following 75 years, and despite mutiple format reshuffles and the introductions of the One-Day and T20 Trophies to the Indian domestic schedule, Assam has failed to take home any silverware. And, as if to rub salt into the wound, in this latest edition of Cricket Captain 2023, the team has achieved ratings of just 1 star in both batting and bowling, putting them amongst the worst sides in the game.

But it isn't all doom and gloom. Assam have occasionally managed to pull off some unexpected results over the years and have reached the knockout rounds of the various trophies on the odd occasion this century, culminating in a semi-final defeat in the Vijay Hazare One-Day Trophy last year.

In this challenge the goal is simple. Force the Assam Cricket Association to build a trophy cabinet. It might end up being the smallest trophy cabinet in cricket but hey, silverware is silverware, right?

The team is made up predominantly of local talent, so continuing youth investment to bring through young players from the region is key but I don't think we can go wrong if we recruit some handy pros to help our youth learn some tricks either. No doubt the team will have a small budget so we can't expect to be signing superstars, but some outside influence is on the shopping list.

Of the players Assam has right now, the star is certainly Riyan Parag, a 21 year-old right-hand batter who is also signed for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL. He is handy in all formats with a decent average and strike-rate and looks to have lots of potential. During the 2019 IPL Parag became the youngest batter to score a 50 in the history of the tournament. Parag also respresented the victorious India side in the Under-19 World Cup alongside Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill. This kid has pedigree. Let's just hope we can keep him!

Another key player in the squad is captain Kunal Saikia, the team's wicketkeeper. He seems to be the leader of the group but is now 34 and unfortunately averages less than 20 in every format. The team does have other experienced heads who appear to have better records, however. Gokul Sharma (middle-order bat) is 37 and only plays first class cricket, but has a decent average. Rishav Das (opening bat) and Swarupam Purkayastha (spinning all-rounder) are no spring chickens either but were instrumental in the one-day semi-final run last year. Of the bowlers, Avinov Choudhury and Mukhtar Hussain are both in their early twenties with decent records across formats, so we can expect these two right-handed bowlers to feature prominently this season.

Is this the biggest ask in Cricket Captain? Can a 1-star team really win a trophy!? Will regens take over the whole team within 2 years?? Let's find out...

[LozzyD903]

New signings announcement:

Of the local youth on offer we have plucked Kanan Bedade from the academy, a middle order batter with decent 2nd XI averages, who we hope will develop into a solid pick in all formats.

Given the overpriced salaries of anybody with international experience our attentions turn to the Indian domestic players looking for work. I figure if we can sign a decent pro for around 30,000, we can sign a couple of youngsters to the cause. Most of the players want 40-50k-plus but a player who catches the eye is former Arunachal Pradesh keeper Rahul Dalal. With an average above 40 in FC and above 60 in OD cricket he's got to be worth a punt for 30k, given our current keepers look like the bat with a stick of rhubarb.

From the domestic youth we take on Lakshmi Raul who is a strange combination of opening bat plus front line pace looking at his stats. Right-arm fast-medium bowler Milind Arothe averages under 20 in 2nd XI cricket and is certainly the pick of the bowlers on offer so becomes our final signing.

We have added to our pace attack with a couple of promising youngsters and added an opening option too, as well as giving our captain a run for his money with the gloves. It would have been nice to find a spinner but it would have taken up most of our development budgets to sign a starter, so we'll make sure we ask the groundsman to aid our pacemen instead.

On to the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy...

[LozzyD903]

Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy vs Vidarbha

Our opening match is at home to Vidarbha who have a strong squad.

The T20 team was led by bowler Mrinmoy Dutta last campaign so we let him continue as captain for now despite the game suggesting we should use Sibsankar Roy, who has a lot more experience. Maybe we'll resort back to him if this all falls apart.

Important bowler Avinov Choudhury is sidelined for 3 weeks with a hamstring injury before the game, so this will be a great chance to see what Milind Arothe can do. We also draft Lakshmi Raul and Rahul Dalal straight into the starting lineup.

After choosing to bat, Rahul Hazarika gets run out first ball and Rishav Das gets out second over leaving us 9-2. Riyan Parag puts up a fight but departs with the score 50-3 and the middle order and tail can only pull us to 103 all out in 15.2 overs.

The classy Vidarbha team thrash us around the ground to reach 108-2 off just 8 overs to put us rock bottom of the group. Somewhat frustrating...

Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy vs Uttarakhand

Another strong team for our second home game. We use the same 11 and put faith in the team despite the last outing.

Batting first again, Sibsankar Roy puts on a decent 45 and with a few other decent scores we put on a respectable 148-8, giving the fans some hope.

Uttarakhand are here to play though and knock their target off in 16.2 overs to win by 3 wickets. Despite the loss we can see a clear improvement in this display compared to the opener, with a few decent individual performances, most notably Milind Arothe taking 5-32. We remain bottom of the group but there is a glimmer of hope that we can be competitive at this format, but it certainly doesn't look like we'll be booking flights for finals day this season.

[LozzyD903]

Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy vs Mumbai

Batting first again, Hazarika manages to get out first ball again and we feel a familiar feeling creeping over us. That is until Rahul Dalal shows us why we brought him on board scoring a magnificent 90 from 52 balls whilst being supported by others to help us reach 175-9.

Hussain and Arothe both take 3 wickets in the Mumbai innings, who were restricted to 63-4 at one stage and never recovered. Purkayastha finishing the job with 2 wickets in 2 balls to win us the game by 15 runs! Finally seeing some strong performances being backed up by solid teamwork to notch our first win.

Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy vs Mizoram

Mizoram have also struggled for wins this season so far so this was probably our best chance to find another victory with the games ahead all being against tougher opposition. Hazarika has been dropped in favour of Rajjakuddin Ahmed, a medium pace all-rounder, with Lakshmi Raul moving to the top of the order.

Whilst we didn't bat amazingly well, all-rounder Nipan Deka scored a solid 35 low down the order to set a challenging 131-7.

Mizoram looked on course until Raul bowled a blinder in the 13th over, taking 3 wickets to leave them 115-7. Two more wickets for him in the 16th over finished Mizoram off 8 short of their target. This gave Raul a quite remarkable record 5er at a cost of just 8 runs, and ensured our second win of the season.

Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy vs Railways

Railways asked us to bowl first for the first time this year and piled on the runs with two players scoring 50s and Upendra Yadav scoring a fine century too. No standout performances with the ball allowed Railways to score a huge 252-6.

Facing such a large total didn't put off our batters however, with Nipan Deka scoring 50 off 20 deliveries, eventually reaching 91 from just 31. Despite a valiant effort we could only reach 206-9 from our 20 overs, but this was still a season high despite the loss. Every cloud and all that...

[LozzyD903]

Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy vs Rajasthan

Facing the top team in the trophy so far we fall to 40-8 after a Khaleel Ahmed hat-trick in the 8th over. We would scrape to 79 all out with Ahmed taking an astounding 7-17. Rajasthan reach the target in 7.3 overs and we pack up and move on to the next one.

Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy vs Madhya Pradesh

In the last game of the T20 season we feel like we're limping over the line and waiting for a rest ahead of the one day trophy. Madhya Pradesh score a respectable 178-6 with no standout performances from either side. Lakshmi Raul is the only player who isn't thinking about the break and scores 74 from 46 but we still require 17 from the final over. Purkayastha with support put on 15 but a final ball wicket sees us lose by 1 run.

A fifth loss of the campaign means we are leapfrogged and settle back into bottom place in Group A just where we started after match day one.

Whilst a run of 3 defeats feels low, at least we upset the odds and won a couple. Standout bowling performances from Raul (7 wickets at 18) and Milind Arothe (15 at 13.73) were the highlights, with both having economies of less than 9 an over. With Choudhury due back from injury soon too we have high hopes for our bowling outfit.

Nipan Deka top scored with 184 runs with Roy (164 runs) and Raul (142 runs) next in line. Hopefully Dalal and Parag can find form in the one-dayers and help carry us to the knockouts like last year!