J&K want nothing less than Ranji title now

Jammu amp Kashmir JampK opener Shubham Khajuria whose vital Ranji Trophy knocks helped his team beat Mumbai in 201415 and last week stressed that JampK have set their sights on winning the Ranji Trophy this season ldquoI had that confidence when we beat Mumbai in 2014 the first instance of JampK beating Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium Yes there was pressure on me during this game but I told myself that I needed to shoulder responsibility as I am an opening batsmanShubham KhajurialdquoBeating Mumbai in Mumbai is big but our main dream is to win the Ranji Trophy for which we are waiting for a long time We have played in the knockouts several times but our teamrsquos focus is to win the trophy I think we are very close to it this season This is the best team to achieve this goalrdquo Khajuria told midday from Baroda on MondayAlso ReadCoach Gautam Gambhir and obviously Suryakumar Yadav will take a call Kotak on Mohammed ShamiReady for Baroda challengeAfter securing a big win on the third day JampK used the fourth day to celebrate their feat On Monday they reached Baroda to prepare for Thursdayrsquos last league game against the hosts Khajuria 29 who has scored 563 runs in six games this season was instrumental in his teamrsquos first win against the Suryakumar Yadavled Mumbai team a decade ago when he scored 107 and 78 at the Wankhede Stadium On Saturday at the MCABKC ground he emerged as his teamrsquos highest rungetter with knocks of 53 and 45 for JampK to do the incredible against Mumbai yet againWhen asked how confident was he about beating the defending champions who had six India players Khajuria said ldquoThe only doubt we had was whether the match would be played on a turner Our strength is fast bowling and if Mumbai prepared a rank turner we wouldnrsquot have been able to play to our strength But when we saw the wicket our belief increased manifold because there was something in the wicket for our fast bowlersrdquoPerfect planningKhajuria also revealed how they chalked out a plan to counter the 42time defending champions on their home groundldquoWe came to Mumbai 10 days ago to prepare Pacer Umar Nazir Mir and I came to the conclusion that if we wanted to beat Mumbai we need to bowl them out quickly in the first innings Mumbai are a strong team and can make a comeback at any stage and we succeeded in getting them all out quickly for 120 in the first innings It was a big achievement for us to beat Mumbai again for whom the current India captain was playing This memory will stay with us foreverRemaining undefeated against Mumbai will help JampKrsquos cricket growrdquo the former India U19 batsman remarkedKhajuria credited JampKrsquos pace bowling unit comprising Auqib Nabi Yudhvir Singh and Mir for fostering a fearless approach ldquoI think this is our best team in the last 1415 years and the main reason for it is our fast bowling unit Yudhvir is very quick Umar is very experienced plays with a batsmanrsquos mindset and I think Auqib has been our best bowler in the redball format over the last four to five yearsAfter facing these fast bowlers in the nets my job in the match became very easyrdquo he remarked