While Arunachal Pradesh finished their journey in the Ranji Trophy 2019, their 28-year-old cricketer Rahul Dalal just missed out to break VVS Laxman’s record of most runs in a Ranji Trophy season.
Arunachal Pradesh was one of the nine new teams in Indian domestic tournaments. The 2019/20 Ranji Trophy was a disaster for the side as they finished in the last position in the Plate Group. They earned only three points in this Group Stage after drawing three matches and losing the other six games. In the Plate Group of this season, Arunachal Pradesh was the only team to finish without a victory.
Rahul Dalal scored 1,340 runs in the Ranji Trophy 2019/20
However, the former Haryana cricketer Rahul Dalal had a different experience in this season. The right-handed Arunachal Pradesh batsman performed unstoppably in this Ranji Trophy season. After playing the nine matches in the 2019/20 Ranji Trophy, he scored 1,340 runs (average 95.71), including four centuries and five half-centuries. He hit two unbeaten double centuries in this season, including his career-best 267*. His other two centuries in this Ranji Season were 178 and 190 runs. In some games of this season, he also played as a wicketkeeper-batsman.
While Rahul Dalal ended his journey in this Ranji Trophy season, he finished as the second most run-scorer in a Ranji Trophy season history. In the 1999/00 Ranji Trophy season, Hyderabad cricketer VVS Laxman recorded 1,415 runs. Rahul ended 75 runs behind of that record.
Top five most run-scorers in a Ranji Trophy season
| Player (Team) | Runs scored | Season |
| VVS Laxman (Hyderabad) | 1415 | 1999/00 |
| Rahul Dalal (Arunachal Pradesh) | 1340 | 2019/20 |
| Milind Kumar (Sikkim) | 1331 | 2018/19 |
| Shreyas Iyer (Mumbai) | 1321 | 2015/16 |
| Priyank Panchal (Gujarat) | 1310 | 2016/17 |
Arunachal Pradesh played the last game of the season against Meghalaya. Meghalaya won the match an innings and 248 runs. Playing as a wicketkeeper-batsman, Rahul scored 32 and 13 runs in this game.
On the other hand, all the top five run-scorers in this Ranji Trophy season have finished their journeys in the Group Stages. While the top four scorers are from the Plate Group, the fifth man is from the Elite Group B. The sixth man of this list, Amit Verma is from Goa, and his team has advanced for the quarter-finals after finishing on the top of the Plate Group.
Top six most run-scorers in Ranji Trophy 2019/20 (updated till 14th February 2020)
| Player (Team) | Matches (Innings) | Runs Scored | Highest Score | Average | 100s/50s |
| Rahul Dalal (Arunachal Pradesh) | 9 (17) | 1340 | 267* | 95.71 | 4/5 |
| Taruwar Kohli (Mizoram) | 9 (16) | 998 | 307* | 71.28 | 3/5 |
| Puneet Bisht (Meghalaya) | 9 (15) | 976 | 250 | 69.71 | 2/6 |
| Paras Dogra (Puducherry) | 9 (13) | 967 | 200 | 80.58 | 4/3 |
| Sarfaraz Khan (Mumbai) | 6 (9) | 928 | 301* | 154.66 | 3/2 |
| Amit Verma (Goa) | 9 (12) | 791 | 148 | 71.90 | 4/3 |