Ushering in a new era — How Usman Ghani charted Vidarbha’s rise to the top

Vidarbha’s rise over the last decade has been one of the most striking transformations in Indian domestic cricket. From lifting its maiden Ranji Trophy in the 2017–18 season to establishing itself as a force across formats, the team’s success has been the product of patience, planning, and a belief in long-term processes.

For a long time, Vidarbha had patchy results and even played in the Plate Group for multiple seasons. The pivot came when former BCCI president and ICC chairman Shashank Manohar–who also served as Vidarbha Cricket Association president for multiple terms–decided that the problems could not be solved at the senior level alone. It was then that he called Usman Ghani and asked him to focus on the age-group players.

Laying the foundation

“He asked me to go down to the junior level and stay there for at least three to four years to lay the foundation,” Ghani recalls. “The idea was to identify good-quality 14-15 players and focus on them. If you build a strong foundation, it will serve you well for a long time.”

However, Ghani, who was with Vidarbha’s senior team at the time, wasn’t keen on the move. Vidarbha had just moved from the Plate division to the Elite Group in the 2012-13 season. “Initially, I wasn’t happy,” he admits. “But he had that vision. Eventually, I felt he might be right.”

He took a leap of faith in Manohar’s vision and spent four years working with the Under-14s, starting the game from the basics. “14-year-olds listen to you very well,” Ghani tells  Sportstar. “They are like wax, you can mould them.”

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After an underwhelming first season, results began to show: Vidarbha won the Under-14 Raj Singh Dungarpur Trophy, and after narrowly missing out the following year, it won again the season after.

A confident bunch

That batch, which included the likes of Yash Rathod, Yash Kadam, Darshan Nalkande, and Atharva Taide, moved up together. At the Under-16 level, Vidarbha won the Vijay Merchant Trophy in 2016. The same group then transitioned to the Under-19s, winning the Cooch Behar Trophy twice and the Vinoo Mankad Trophy twice, while also finishing runner-up in the Cooch Behar Trophy on two other occasions over four years.

“It’s an advantage when you know someone for so long. Sir knows us inside out, and we know how he works,” says the opening batter Aman Mokhade, who scored 814 runs in the recent Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign. 

“We are a confident team. Whenever we play, we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses well because we have been playing together from when we were young,” fast bowler Praful Hinge adds.

“The camaraderie has been really good,” Ghani feels, adding that the selectors and administrators should get credit for showing patience and resisting the temptation to reshuffle. “Sometimes, you have to give players a long run for them to excel. The selectors backed me, and the results have come.”

By the time Chandrakant Pandit took charge of the senior team in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, the system looked much stronger. Vidarbha won back-to-back Ranji Trophy titles in that period, signalling that the age-group pipeline had begun delivering at the highest domestic level.

Once his Under-14 boys moved to the senior First-Class setup, Ghani joined them in the 2023-24 season. In his first year, Vidarbha qualified for the quarterfinals of both the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. It also reached the Ranji Trophy final, but lost to Mumbai. Yet, the defeat did not fracture belief.

Behind the scenes

Ahead of the 2024-25 season, VCA officials held meetings to analyse the year gone by and plan for the future, taking learnings from it.

“Before the season, we sat down with the president, selectors, and coaches and drew clear guidelines: what we can do, the areas we need to work on, and how to enhance what we are already good at.”

The process involved identifying and naming probables as early as July, followed by camps focused on fitness, tactics, and addressing grey areas. “Analysis is very important to see what happened, what can be done, and where we faltered,” the head coach says.

“In the off season, that’s what we work on. All teams do similar things now. It’s a very competitive world. Every team is preparing to win the trophy.”

According to Ghani, the era of traditional domestic giants such as Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Karnataka, and Mumbai dominating every season is over. Since the 2016-17 season, Vidarbha has won 132 of its 229 matches across formats. In red-ball tournaments, it has registered 41 wins in 77 matches, with only nine losses.

“Smaller states are doing well now. Standards have improved,” Ghani says. To stay ahead, Vidarbha leans on technology as well, encouraging batters to strengthen areas opponents may target and bowlers to develop variations that disrupt preparation.

Belief is crucial

Last week, Vidarbha went on to win its maiden 50-over title after falling short in the final the previous season. “It wasn’t just about individuals performing,” Ghani says. “Players stepped up whenever the team was in trouble. They took responsibility. ”

Now that Vidarbha has become a team to beat across formats, the focus has shifted to producing players capable of succeeding at higher levels. The squad’s average age is around 24, Ghani says, and transitions have been handled deliberately, even as experienced names like Faiz Fazal and Aditya Sarwate have moved on, and others such as Umesh Yadav approach the twilight of their careers.

“We wanted to win and bring in new players,” he says. “Fortunately, we’ve managed both smoothly.”

Several players like Harsh Dubey, Yash Thakur, Mokhade, and Danish Malewar are already knocking on the door, with India A appearances and Duleep Trophy exposure. Five players from the current Vidarbha squad–Dubey (Sunrisers Hyderabad), Thakur (Punjab Kings), Malewar (Mumbai Indians), Hinge (SRH), and R. Samarth (SRH)–will feature in the IPL 2026 as well. 

“They are not far behind those already playing for India,” Ghani says. “They just have to keep performing.”

Ultimately, the difference between domestic success and international cricket, he believes, lies in the mind. “Cricket remains the same. Shot selection, hitting the right areas–it doesn’t change. Handling pressure does.

“It’s like an F1 race, the margin for error has to be very small.”

Published on Jan 25, 2026