No surprise, Duleep double a result of combination of skills
Living up to expectations is quite a difficult task. Baba Indrajith, though, likes to differ.
Praise was lavished on the right-hander during the last Ranji Trophy season, courtesy his 697-run tally (average and strike-rate of 63.36 and 53.82). Those accolades centered around both fluency and maturity; the latter due to the fact that quite a few of those runs came in the company of tail-enders.
That level-headed approach was on display yet again, this time in Kanpur for the India Red team in a Duleep Trophy match. The result: a maiden first-class double ton.
Coming in at three-down against India Blue on Tuesday, his unbeaten 120 lugged India Red from 159/7 to 291/9 at stumps. The 23-year-old wasn't done, though.
The fact that his partner Vijay Gohil was as No 11, as a No 11 can be (he had five runs from his eight first-class innings) wasn't lost on Indrajith. Wednesday was evidence enough for that.
Gohil went from his overnight score of 22 to 34, but the scoreboard leaped from 291/9 to 383. By the time Indrajith walked back to the dugout with his score reading 200, 178 runs had been accrued for the last wicket. The Tamil Nadu batsman alone accounted for 141 of those.
"He has batted in various positions during his age-group days. Being in the lower middle-order is not easy, considering that tail-enders come into the equation. He's learned a lot in that context, and he knows that there's a pattern to it," explained Indrajith's twin brother and Tamil Nadu regular Baba Aparajith.
"He knows how to play and communicate with tail-enders. Considering that he has the experience of captaincy (Indrajith has skippered the Ruby Trichy Warriors in the Tamil Nadu Premier League), he has acquired the maturity to guide them and in turn help them give their best."
The experience that Aparajith is referring to has also in part been forged by Indrajith's domestic sojourn, especially during the last season. His consistent performances -- he raked up two centuries and five fifties -- saw his position in the batting order gradually move north.
"He's always been a developed batsman. But it was after entering the Ranji Trophy set-up (Indrajith made his first-class debut in the 2013-14 season) that he went through the grind and evolved as a cricketer," elaborated Aparajith.
"I don't think he's peaked all of a sudden. Even during last season, he started low, but rose through the batting order as he kept putting up good performances. Even during Tamil Nadu's semifinal against Mumbai last year, he came in as one-down and scored a hundred. I'd rather say that his current form is a culmination of all the work he's put in since his U-13 days."