CHENNAI: Keeping in mind their past struggles, Tamil Nadu are looking to put together a strong pace attack ahead of the upcoming Ranji Trophy. Thus all the Tamil Nadu selectors right from chairman K Shri Vasudeva Das watched both the TNCA President's XI and TNCA XI fast bowlers with rapt attention in the Buchi Babu Tournament at Gojan grounds here on Sunday. Both the games ended in a draw.
Apart from captain and left-arm spinner Sai Kishore, pacers Sandeep Warrier, Gurjapneet Singh, Sonu Yadav will be the key bowlers for the state. The place for the fourth seamer is up for grabs. CV Achyuth and D Deepesh are strong contenders for the fourth bowler slot.
Achyuth and Deepesh playing for the TNCA President's XI and TNCA XI respectively bowled with a lot of fire and vigour at the adjacent grounds. Former first class cricketer and a key member of the selection panel S Srinivason who watched the matches admired the way both Achyuth and Deepesh bowled.
"Both Achyuth and Deepesh are very good prospects for the state. Both bowled with good rhythm and hit the deck. Very pleased with our talent pool,'' said Srinivason.
Achyuth, who took three wickets against Maharashtra, was happy with the way he bowled. He also spoke to Prithvi Shaw and Mukesh Choudhary of Maharashtra after the game to seek their inputs as to how to bowl better. "It was a good feeling to pick three wickets against Maharashtra because there wasn't much from the wicket. So I tried to put in that extra bit in terms of effort. And I bowled the correct lengths for this surface, because it was a little slow compared to the other wickets that we have played,'' said Achyuth.
Speaking on his learnings after the two rounds of the ongoing tournament and under the new coaching think tank, he said, "It's hard to judge. Personally I feel both games were similar. Though I got a few more wickets in the first game. But I felt like I bowled the same here against Maharashtra. Maybe could have gotten another wicket with the new ball. A couple of early wickets. But it was a good experience to bowl to a quality Maharashtra side,'' said Achyuth who plays for Grand Slam in the TNCA league. ''Playing the TNCA league matches in the build up for Buchi Babu was good as I bowed with good rhythm. I did not feel rusty,'' said the youngster.
He said tough competition only helps him improve. ''The competition is always tough. It's a tough job getting into the team (Buchi Babu) itself. And I feel like it's good to have competition. Because we are trying to do better when there is more competition. And this is a good tournament. I wish to do well and earn a Ranji call up,'' insisted the 21 year old.
Achyuth said bowling to quality batters will help the state bowlers a lot during the tournament. ''Generally wickets here in the TNCA league are spinner friendly. They (other teams) are used to playing more pacers and fast bowlers. So they are good against pacers. So when I am bowling against them there is very little room for error. And that kept me on my toes to bowl tighter lines and proper lengths,'' he said, informing that he was inspired to take up fast bowling by his father, who was also a pacer.
The pacer admitted his time at the MRF Pace Foundation and valuable inputs from M Senthilnathan worked wonders for him. ''I was there at the Foundation for quite some time. Senthil Sir told me something personally which worked. Everybody says try to hold it up (ball). So when I tried doing that it was more of... I wasn't able to pick the correct length. And then when Senthil Sir gave me a few adjustments and asked me to think of it a certain way. I was able to hit the right length,'' he revealed.
Achyuth, who has played List A cricket for Tamil Nadu, is hoping to get an opportunity in red ball soon.
Brief scores: At Gojan 'B': TNCA President's XI 384/9 & 4/2 in 5 ovs drew with Maharashtra 228 in 74.1 ovs (Prithvi Shaw 66, Harshal Kate 62, Siddharth Mhatre 42, CV Achyuth 3/50). At SSN: Himachal Pradesh 144 & 74/2 in 15.4 ovs (Ankush Bains 37 n,o) drew with Chhattisgarh 227/6 decl in 65.4 ovs (Rishi Sharma 51, Ashutosh Singh 37, Sanjeet Desai 41, Amandeep Khare 37, Apoorav Walia 3/57). At TI-Murugappa: Baroda 176 & 182/9 in 45 ovs (Harsh Desai 32, Pradip Yadav 38, Vanshaj Sharma 4/74, Abid Mushtaq 4/78) lost to Jammu & Kashmir 280 & 82/0 in 24.3 ovs (Vivrant Sharma 34 n.o., Yawar Hassan 48 n.o.). At SRMC (Turf): Odisha 222 & 184/8 in 45 ovs (Swastik Samal 37, Om Munde 41, Akash Pandey 4/64) lost to Indian Railways 210 in 60.5 ovs (Kush Marathe 33, Eshaan Goyal 31, Zubair Ali Khan 80, Sumit Sharma 4/110, Badal Biswal 3/57) & 197/5 in 38 ovs (Ashish Singh 34, Eshaan Goyal 40, Dinesh Mor 67). At Gojan 'A': TNCA XI 414/8 drew with Haryana 207 in 63.2 ovs (Lakshya Dalal 73, Ankit Kumar 32, Dheeru Singh 36, DT Chandrasekar 5/67). At IITM: Mumbai 266 drew with Bengal 325/5 in 90 ovs (Aditya Purohit 122, Saurabh Singh 86, Anustup Majumdar 34). At MRF-Pachaiyappa's: Madhya Pradesh 230/9 & 230/8 in 45 ovs (Shubham Sharma 30, Soham Patwardhan 42, Akshat Dwivedi 39 n.o, Mangesh Yadav 75, Prerit Dutta 3/89) lost to Punjab 395/9 decl in 88 ovs (Harnoor Singh Pannu 45, Prabhsimran Singh 39, Uday Pratap Saharan 109, Anmolpreet Singh 72, Anmol Malhotra 87, Aditya Mishra 5/93) & 68/4 in 6.2 ovs (Aditya Mishra 3/31). At Guru Nanak: Jharkhand 283 & 130 in 25.3 ovs (Sharandeep Singh 39, Sourabh Shekhar 34, Tanay Thyagarajan 4/74, Aniket Reddy 3/25) lost to Hyderabad 330 in 82.4 ovs (P Nitish Reddy 106, Rahul Radesh 70, Varun Goud 65, Manishi 3/84, Rishav Raj 3/67) & 89/8 in 22.3 ovs (G Rahul Singh 35, Rishav Raj 5/44, Manishi 3/39).
