Andhra captain Ricky Bhui believes present Ranji Trophy version has been a ‘breakthrough season’ for him

Ricky Bhui has featured in first-class cricket for a decade, however the Andhra captain believes the continuing version of the Ranji Trophy has been a ‘breakthrough season’ for him.

The 27-year-old wicketkeeper-batter has been a standout performer within the event until now, amassing 861 runs and rising because the top-scorer in Elite Group. Leading from the entrance, he has additionally performed a key function in guiding Andhra to the knockouts.

“I always thought that I needed a breakthrough season. People often told me that with so many skills, I have not been able to justify my talent. I have realised that as a middle-order batter in India, you have to keep getting runs,” Bhui advised  Sportstar on Wednesday.

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“Over the last couple of years, Sarfaraz (Khan) kept piling runs, and eventually, his hard work paid off. Likewise, my target has been to keep batting and keep getting runs. I think this has been that breakthrough season for me so far,” he added.

When Andhra faces Madhya Pradesh on the Holkar Stadium on Friday, it will likely be a rematch of final 12 months’s Ranji Trophy quarterfinals, the place the latter had the final snort. “I have already told the team that we need to overcome this mental barrier and not think about what happened last year. Last year, the teams were different, the circumstances were different, and now, things are completely different,” Bhui stated.

When the event began in January, Bhui wasn’t Andhra’s captain. But as Hanuma Vihari relinquished captaincy a day earlier than its group league sport in opposition to Mumbai, Bhui needed to step up. Barring a number of early hiccups, it has been fairly a marketing campaign for the facet, and Bhui believes that readability of roles has helped the gamers carry out freely.

“Initially, it was surprising that Vihari stepped down as the captain. But now, as I look at it, it has been good for the team because we needed him more as a batter. Eventually, I did not find it that tough because this team has been playing together for a while now. The core team has been together for the last five to six seasons, so it hasn’t been tough to get used to the new role,” he stated. 

“The team has also accepted me nicely, and eventually, they know their roles, so it hasn’t been tough. Even Vihari has helped me on the ground in making those tough decisions, so it has been a smooth ride so far…”

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Early in his profession, Bhui was usually labelled as a T20 specialist, however over time, he labored arduous on his batting to alter the notion. “People initially thought that I was a power-hitting batter since my U-19 days. But playing with Mohammed Kaif and Vihari helped me understand quite a few things about red-ball cricket. Vihari has been an inspiration, and certainly, he has helped me a lot in understanding which deliveries to face and which ones to leave,” he stated.

Slowly, he labored on bettering his sport and the result’s evident now. 

“For me, it has been about unlocking my game. I made the bowlers bowl from a shorter distance and played on different surfaces in Visakhapatnam and those things eventually helped me,” the Andhra captain stated. 

“Playing on different surfaces gave me [some] extra time to judge the ball and boosted my confidence that I won’t give away my wicket easily…”

Three centuries and as many fifty-plus scores within the event is a testomony to his arduous work and willpower.