CHENNAI: The last few days have been a bit of a dream for Madhya Pradesh cricketer Saransh Jain. At 33, the off-spinning all-rounder got his maiden India call-up for the two Test matches against Sri Lanka later this month. With Washington Sundar not available for the first match, Saransh could become the first since Robin Singh to make his debut after the age of 33.
While Saransh looks at age as just a number, he revealed how it was his father Subodh, former offie who has played for Madhya Pradesh, remains his ultimate idol. "I started playing cricket because of my father... I play cricket for him, and he is my ultimate idol," Jain told JioHotstar. "It isn't easy to make it into the 15-member Indian squad among millions of people, so family support is vital. There were times when family issues happened where I could have broken down, but my family stood by me, managed everything, and stayed together. Because of them, I'm playing for India today. My dream was always to play Test cricket for India; right from the start, I've loved red-ball cricket," added Jain.
Having made his first-class debut in 2014-15, Saransh was in and out of the MP team before Chandrakant Pandit took over as head coach. Since then, he has become a consistent performer for the state with his best coming in last season. He took eight wickets and scored a first-innings century in their six-wicket win over South Zone in the Duleep Trophy final last year.
"In 2014-15, I made my Ranji debut and took a five-wicket haul in my very first game against Tamil Nadu, a side which featured senior players like Dinesh Karthik. That made me realise cricket isn't as difficult if you put in hard work and are disciplined. From then on, I knew if I wanted to play at a higher level, I had to focus on things which I can control. I kept doing that, and today I'm here representing India," added Jain, who has 2223 runs at an average of 31.75 and 188 wickets at 27.30 in first-class matches.
"Ever since my age-group days, my main weapon has been consistency, to be able to hit the same spot repeatedly because the batsman will eventually take a risk to score. I'm not overthinking how the pitches will behave in Sri Lanka or how many wickets I'll get; I just want to stick to my basics."
As someone who idolises R Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh, Jain spent a lot of time watching the former. Recently, he got a chance to work with the latter at the Bengaluru-based Centre of Excellence. "During the one-week camp at the Centre of Excellence, I learned a lot from Harbhajan Singh. Skill-wise, they told me I didn't need major tweaks since I already have plenty of match experience. But one piece of advice from him really stuck with me, 'You don't have to lose something to gain something. You have to put in the work.' That stayed with me, and whenever I push myself through hard work, those words resonate deeply."
