CHENNAI: If you give Baba Indrajith a pen and a blank sheet of paper with two dots on it, then he — in all probability — will join them with a ramrod-straight line. Why, you may ask? Because the 22-year-old’s psychological compass, on and off the field, always points in one direction: simplicity.
Sample Indrajith’s summary of the preparations that he’s put in for his maiden India A call-up — a three-day warm-up clash against Australia in Mumbai starting on February 16 — and the aforementioned conjecture on his psyche may then make a lot more sense.
“When I got the call (on January 31), I was excited. My emotions were quite high. It’s been two weeks now, and I’ve had time to recalibrate. I know I’ll be nervous when I go there, facing an international team in a squad with names I haven’t been with before. Being aware of that helps, because it plays a role in nullifying the pressure,” explains the right-hander.
Indrajith’s regimen with the willow during those two weeks too is congruous with the line of thought he’s dwelling on: sticking to his forte. “I’ve been working on my basics, but haven’t really tinkered with technique. I’ve made some very, very small changes. Things like leaving outside off-stump, working on back-foot and tightening up my defence.
“I’ve also been focussing on venue-specific drills. For example, if I’m about to play on a rich-soil wicket, I try and face more shorter deliveries. If it’s a clay wicket, I place emphasis on straighter ones. I focus on minute details, but I like to keep my technique intact.”
All you need to do for understanding the rationale behind Indrajith’s conscious decision to preserve his technical ethos is skim through his batting statistics for this season’s Ranji Trophy. In 14 innings, the Tamil Nadu batsman cranked out 697 runs, with two centuries and five fifties. All this at an average of 63.36 and strike rate of 53.82.
“If your technical base is right, things boil down to your mindset. For that department, I’ve been working with Sujith Somasunder (former India batsman). My mental-conditioning regimen consists of self-evaluation exercises, along with topical readings that he deems okay for me. They help me in determining as to what part of my learning curve I’m on right now,” elaborates Indrajith.
“I’ve also been in constant touch with my personal coach S Balaji. I rely on his inputs to chart out my practice sessions, and to discern the areas that I need to work on. Apart from that, I’ve been in putting in my hard yards; batting a lot and hitting a lot of balls. ”
rahulravi@newindianexpress.com
