PANAJI
Former Goa captain Swapnil Asnodkar, who was appointed as the batting coach of Nagaland for the current domestic season expressed his gratitude towards Nagaland Cricket Association.
“A Big Thank You @nagaland_cricket_association for giving me an opportunity to work with the men's senior team. It has been a great season for me personally to work with all the players and support staff. Special mention to Debashish Sir too. Lots to explore and lots to learn. Had the best time with the entire team in all the ups and down for last 5 months.” Swapnil wrote on his facebook account.
Asnodkar, a prolific run scorer in domestic cricket, has also been the U-25 head coach for Goa on previous occasion.
Former India international Debashish Mohanty, who featured in two Tests and 45 ODIs for India, was the head coach of Nagaland this season.
Nagaland finished as runners-up in Ranji Plate Division 2024-25, losing to Goa in the finals by 362 runs. But, on virtue of finishing in top-two in Ranji Plate Division, Nagaland along with Goa has qualified for the Ranji Elite Group for the next season. In fact, the Nagaland side showcased resilience and determination throughout their campaign this season.
In the group stage, Nagaland finished on second position with 23 points (3 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw) behind Goa. They defeated Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Sikkim and drew against Mizoram. Despite a loss to Goa in the group stage, Nagaland fought back to finish second in the points table and earn its place in the final.
However, they could not show the same performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Hazare Trophy.
In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, Nagaland lost all their six games to finish last in their group. They lost to Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Services and Goa.
In the Vijay Hazare Trophy, Nagaland could barely manage to win only a single game, that too against a lowly-ranked Arunachal Pradesh. They lost to Karnataka, Punjab, Mumbai, Hyerabad, Pondicherry and Saurashtra to finish seventh among eight teams in their group.
For Nagaland, Dega Nischal who scored 848 runs this Ranji season, emerged as their leading run-scorer while skipper Rongsen Jonathan and Chetan Bist with 465 and 456 runs respectively were the other top run-getters for the North-East side. Chetan (304 not out) and Rongsen (225) even scored a triple and double century respectively this season.
Jagadeesha Suchith was the highest wicket taker for them with 43 wickets while Rongsen Jonathan took 25 wickets.
“Nagaland is a small state and we have been playing domestic cricket only since 2018. It will take time for cricket to develop in that state,” Swapnil Asnodkar was quoted saying earlier during the season.