The photographers had received their memo. They'd kept quiet while a nearly 10-minute conversation ensued at the press conference room in the lead up to the Ranji Trophy 2025-26 final. Right after the final question was answered, one of them sprang to task. "Captains ka handshake karao."

Paras Dogra and Devdutt Padikkal, two tall, lean men sitting behind a desk topped up with mics, in ear-shot of that instruction, awkwardly placed their hands just above the obstruction-set to get click ready.

Dogra may have been around the circuit for nearly 25 years. He has seen the evolution of Indian domestic cricket from various extremes - playing the zonal format, at neutral venues, in the plate division, for teams featuring in their maiden season. The list is endless. Over these years, he has learned to adapt to all sorts of conditions: the green tracks, the dust bowls, the dead pitches. What he hasn't learnt though is to pose ahead of a tournament final in a press room surrounded by nearly 40 men and women holding cameras and recorders. Mid-way into his third decade as a domestic cricketer, it's still a fresh experience.

As the silence stretched for a few awkward seconds, someone had to say it. This was the Ranji Trophy final - the grandest stage of India's domestic calendar - unfolding in Hubballi, a small city unaccustomed to such theatre. And yet, here were two captains, stuck in an ungainly handshake.

Who would bell the cat?

It had to be someone who would be answerable by evening, their name attached to this frame in the next morning's papers. The photographers. One of them took the bullet for the rest.

"Standing handshake."

Padikkal, just as new to the experience, stood up and turned to his right, uncomfortably staring into the eyes of Dogra, unsure for how long he was to hold that pose and stare. The act of shaking hands that the two of them would've learnt in school and repeated after every cricket match they ever played, suddenly seemed liked it required training. Padikkal also muttered an awkward 'Best of luck' to keep up with the charade.

In the 10 minutes preceding that pose-gymnastic, it seemed like neither of these two captains would be ever called in to cut a promo for a boxing match. The show and talk ranged from nervousness to subtle confidence. Even the odd display of chest-thumping and power-posturing that came through when Dogra sent a reminder of the team's victories in the knockouts - against Madhya Pradesh in Indore and Bengal in Kalyani - was spelt out softly, with a bit of hesitation.

Could they beat Karnataka in Karnataka to win a title they have never won?

Jorge Luis Borges once wrote that "any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up chiefly of a single moment." For J&K cricket, that moment is now, and possibly for Dogra too, whose illustrious cricket career is devoid of the prized silverware.

"Obviously it's a very big moment for us," Dogra admitted. "We are just trying to stay calm and composed. We will stick to our basics, let's see how it goes."

The restraint was understandable. For a team playing its first final, up against statistically the second-most successful side in the tournament's history, the odds are firmly stacked against them. But Jammu & Kashmir would know this is no accident. They have been building toward this moment for two seasons.

And recent history offers them encouragement. In the past decade, whenever a legacy heavyweight has met a never-been-champions in the title clash, it is the outsider that has prevailed. Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh over Mumbai, Vidarbha over Delhi. Saurashtra over Bengal. Pedigree has not always dictated destiny.

Yet, the question remains, what happened to the careers of players in those winning teams after they won the title? How many of them found a place in the national team after their team's maiden title victory?

What could a Ranji Trophy win mean to the players of Jammu & Kashmir?

There couldn't have been more contrasting men seated next to each other to showcase the peculiar cruelty. Dogra has outlasted selectors and teammates, only to find himself one game away from a trophy that never seemed in reach even as has piled up those big runs season-after-season, as a late-bloomer, for Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry and now Jammu & Kashmir. He missed the bus to the national side even before he could unlock the next level of his batting.

Padikkal, who took over the captaincy midway through the campaign, on the other hand has scored nearly as many runs as Dogra this season (in fewer innings). But he will be aware that he is already on fringes of the national team and a title win might just nudge the selectors into considering him once more. The hope for such optimism features all around him - KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair and Prasidh Krishna. Dogra has barely witnessed that across teams, across decades.

Can an Auqib Nabi, with 55 wickets already this season, aspire with the same confidence to play for India later this year? Or is the card of success for one only a card of hope for another? Has the climb to this moment already come to matter more than the summit still unseen?

The limelight may not have been on Dogra for those few minutes in the press conference room, with questions largely fielded by home-boy Padikkal, who is tasked with bringing the cup back for the ninth time. That's not to say where the limelight of the contest, outside the room, really is. Jammu & Kashmir have entered their maiden final, and the magnanimity of the moment isn't lost on anyone. Former cricketers, politicians - including the chief minister - have all joined the discussion and celebrations.

Some have joined to even take potshots at the opposition. Samiullah Beigh, the former J&K pacer, wrote on Twitter, "A quick glance at the journey of two Ranji Trophy 2026 finalists reveals that it is going to be a direct contest between Karnataka's batting vs J&K's bowling. Going by the defensive mindset shown by Karnataka in the Semis , I am certain that@L0$KSCA would do everything in their control to provide the flattest deck possible to negate J&K bowlers and then bank on its batting prowess to win the match on first innings-lead basis."

Beige's assessment could come true, not necessarily due to KSCA's 'smart gamesmanship', but because Karnataka have mustered 500-plus inning totals in each of their last three games at the venue. But Beigh believes such a ploy might have its cons, drawing parallels with India's loss in the 2023 World Cup final.

The passion is understandable from someone who spent decades preparing for a Ranji season in trying conditions, the J&K jersey on his back, sometimes with nothing more than a tennis ball bowled inside his house compound for practice.

This aggressive involvement is far from the silence that Karnataka's state and cricketing establishment have paraded. Reaching the final may not be a point of success for the eight-time champions, but it's a stage they have long waited to return to - more than a decade since they won back-to-back titles, of which several players from the current lot were a part, with their status as the second-most dominant team in the country somewhat on the wane.

That moment to regain lost pride has finally arrived. The venue, the conditions, the opposition and the history - all scales tilt in their favour. One team is playing to make history; the other is playing to uphold its stature. It is not always clear which is the heavier burden to carry to a final. But one thing is certain, whoever lifts the trophy by the end of this week, would surely pull out a more confident pose for the cameras.