"GENUINE off-spinner."
Madhya Pradesh head coach Chandrakant Pandit does not use the term lightly while talking about the latest entrant to the Indian Test team — Saransh Jain — for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.
The phrase comes with significance for a reason. Saransh, at 33, is not an up and coming talent the selectors have fast-tracked, but an experienced campaigner who has toiled for more than a decade in domestic cricket. His first-class batting record (31.75 average, two hundreds and 14 fifties) might create the perception of a batting all-rounder who can roll his arm, but Pandit's comment clarifies that. He is more than just an all-rounder. He is a "genuine off-spinner".
He knows him like the back of his own hand. The 33-year-old's father, Subodh, a right-arm offbreak bowler who had played nine Ranji matches for Madhya Pradesh, attests to it. "For any parent, it is a proud moment," Subodh told this daily. "Chandu Pandit backed him. And he gave him confidence and from thereon, his career took a turn around," he added.
Pandit's backing holds significance in the career of Saransh with good reason. His family underplayed Subodh's health issue (he survived oral cancer) when Saransh went Down Under for an exposure trip in 2014 as a 20-year-old. Though he made his first-class debut in the same year, Saransh had played only seven first-class matches till 2021. So when Pandit brought him under the wings, Saransh asked the coach if he will have the backing and the chance to play regularly.
"When I saw him during the nets, the way he was delivering, having those variations... I thought that he will be very useful for the team. That is how we started talking to him and having that communication because that was my first year," Pandit recalled of his first interaction with Saransh. "I could see that he had a lot of enthusiasm to play. And with a seriousness and commitment. When I had given him that confidence and, of course, he asked me 'if I get the opportunity. If you can back me and continue giving me opportunities. Then I will have that confidence'. I said that is the reason I have been talking to you," Pandit added.
The turnaround since is visible in the sheer numbers. He has taken 117 wickets in 46 matches with his best season coming last year (50 wickets in ten matches). While he does not want to compare individuals, Pandit feels after Harbhajan Singh and R Ashwin, Saransh could be the genuine offie in this Indian set-up. "If you look at the Saransh, even the first delivery he comes to bowl from around the wicket. That is the kind of confidence, he now has in his skill. Everyone has a different variation... bowling round the wicket is one of the angles which he uses on any surface. That shows the confidence level and the consistency in his line," said Pandit who had suggested Saransh to come around the wicket early on in his stint.
What makes the case even more interesting for Saransh is that with Washington Sundar set to miss the first Test, the MP offie could become the first since Robin Singh to make his Test debut post the age of 33. And it helps that he was a part of the recent India A tour of Sri Lanka where he took seven wickets in two matches, including a 4/92.
"I spoke to him this afternoon and told him to carry on what he has been doing rather than thinking that you are playing for India and probably putting pressure on yourself to do something extra. Indian wickets and probably Sri Lankan wickets.. it's not a big difference. Obviously, he carries that experience (recent tour) as well as the confidence. I hope he will carry that forward and deliver for Indian cricket," Pandit signed off.