Captain Gangta lauds Himachal’s fitness, says poor Ranji form ‘just a phase’ with hopes of better momentum

Although Himachal Pradesh never really got momentum this Ranji Trophy season, its batter Nikhil Gangta feels it is just a phase that every team goes through.

Coming into the last encounter of the tournament here against Pondicherry, a winless Himachal is reeling at the last spot in Group D, fearing relegation to Plate Group next season.

In six matches, it has lost four. And in the four games it took a lead in, Himachal lost three and drew one.

“Sometimes this phase comes, the kind of phase we are in,” Gangta told Sportstar. “This year we have collapsed a lot. It happens with all teams and players that one season you perform like this. There’s no specific reason, it’s just that we never had momentum, sometimes conditions didn’t favour us,” he added.

The 31-year-old says few of the players took time to adjust to the red-ball format after playing the limited overs.

“For multi-day (games), you need preparation and discipline. Earlier we used to play the Ranji Trophy and then the limited overs. Now from shorter formats, we are coming to multi-day. So few players took time to adjust.”

Coming into this match, Gangta himself had a run of poor outings with the bat, having scored just 129 runs. However, he redeemed himself with a marathon 242-ball 108 to help Himachal finish the season on a high.

“I should have done better for my team and personally as well. Now I have played a better innings which is good for the team and for me. It’s always team first for me. So, I’m happy that I contributed. (We) could have done much better with this kind of calibre,” Gangta, who has scored 3023 runs in First-Class cricket, said.

Himachal has had an overall good run this domestic season, finishing third in its group during Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2023-24, with five wins out of seven, and fourth in the Vijay Hazare group stage with three wins in six matches.

Gangta says fitness being of utmost importance has raised the game level as well.

“In Himachal, we give a lot of importance to fitness. All our players are super fit. We have agility and good power. We work a lot during off seasons and we have a new fitness criterion as well. We have to do 17.1 in Yo-Yo tests. So we have improved a lot on many things,” he said.