Initially, we had a few people like Pat Cummins coming in slightly late. Not being able to find the right combination, making so many changes - do you think that it was the main reason KKR didn't qualify? Or were there other reasons too?īaba Indrajith: It is very hard to say that that is the reason because sometimes those are forced changes. It's also a good experience that I have got here, I have handled the pressure and everything.' Maybe not just skill-wise, but mentality-wise as well. Maybe next time I get there, there's a lot to improve on. I was disappointed that I was not able to get those runs in those three opportunities.īut during that time, I learned a lot that - 'Yes, we do try sometimes, but not every time things go the way we expect them to go. It was part and parcel of the game but after those three innings, it was difficult for me to get back to normal because I had to face a lot of things. I mean, I understand why I was not picked after it. How did you cope with getting dropped after three games?īaba Indrajith: That was fine. Maybe if I had gotten that start, things would have been different. Certain things were slightly difficult for me initially, so I was not able to get that start. That kind of support was always there from the management. Even for an experienced player like you, how difficult or easy is it to adjust to that?īaba Indrajith: As you said, we always have the freedom to go out there and express ourselves, that is the brand of cricket KKR has always played. But here you were playing for a team working on a philosophy of 'go hard or go home'. You talked about playing to your strengths, which is evidently playing the long game. So on the whole, my role was to back my strengths and not do anything extra. In the next two games my role was slightly different - I had to open the innings because of a different combination so even there they said I would be the anchor person because I was playing with Aaron Finch who obviously has a different style of playing. That was the message to me from the management and the coach, so I tried to do that. Whatever you feel like doing, whatever your strengths are, try and back that." What was the role assigned to you by the management?īaba Indrajith: In the first game I played my debut match, I had to play in the middle order so they basically said, "You are a timer of the ball so you play it to your strengths, you don't have to do anything extra. This bumper red-ball run came after a 325-run stint (average of 46.52 and four fifties) in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy. Known for his Mahela Jayawardene-esque flair and timing, he has added more shots and power-hitting to his batting this year, with all three of his centuries coming at a strike rate of above 75. This year, he has scored 396 runs from three Ranji games, including three centuries, at an average of 99. Over the next six seasons, he ended up in the top-three run-scorers for the state five times, leading the charts on two occasions. In his debut Ranji Trophy season for Tamil Nadu, he was dropped after managing just 51 runs in three games. After all, he has overcome such false starts innumerable times before. Only two players in the world - Afghanistan's Bahir Shah (69.02) and New Zealand's Devon Conway (68.41) - have a better aggregate than him in this period.īeing able to score just 21 runs in 3 games for KKR is more likely to be a blip than a precedent. The 27-year-old is the highest averaging (66.10) first-class cricketer in India since 2016. His unassuming walk to the pitch, lack of invites to pre-match interviews and a no-nonsense wicketkeeping technique might belie it, but Indrajith is a domestic giant.
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