Vidarbha captain Harsh Dubey took nine wickets in one innings against Madhya Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy Elite on Monday (November 2), his career-best spell, to knock on the national selectors’ door once again.
After MP opted to bat at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur, pacer Nachiket Bhute took the first wicket of the innings, opener Yash Dubey. Harsh then ran through the middle and lower order, picking up nine wickets for 53 runs in his 23.1 overs. The left-arm spinner’s wickets included India international Rajat Patidar and Saransh Jain.
His previous career-best bowling figures were 6/36 for Vidarbha against Himachal Pradesh in the second innings of a Ranji Trophy Group B match in Nagpur in November 2024. 9/53 were also the best figures for a Vidarbha bowler
in the Ranji Trophy.
Also read: Father’s Tears Of Joy And A Dream Fulfilled: Harsh Dubey’s Record-Breaking Journey To Ranji Glory
Dubey made his debut for India in the home ODI series against Afghanistan but has struggled to get back into the scheme of things since, thanks to a long line of left-arm spinners ahead of him, including veterans Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. For Test matches, India have preferred fellow left-arm spinner Manav Suthar, who missed out on the Test series squad in New Zealand but traveled to feature for India A.
Harsh missed a couple more possible chances as he spent the last few weeks in the lead-up to the Ranji Trophy at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, recovering from what News18 has learned was a minor injury. But having won the Ranji Trophy two years ago as the record-breaking highest wicket-taker, if he continues these consistent performances, he’d make it quite difficult for the selectors to overlook him.
There’s a possible space opening up across formats with Jadeja in the fag end of his career and Axar struggling with both bat and ball. It’s now on Harsh to break that door down.
