Making it to the Rest of India squad featuring the 16 best players in the country to face the Ranji Trophy champions for the Irani Trophy is a big achievement for any player and it is more special for a player who has just started his first-class career. This is what the 23-year-old pacer from Tamil Nadu, Krishnamoorthy Vignesh has managed to do.
After playing a huge role for his team in the 2016 Tamil Nadu Premier League, Vignesh was called up to represent his state in India’s premier first-class tournament. The amount of hard work he put in and the sacrifices he made in the past had paid off. Still, his place in the Tamil Nadu playing XI was not certain and he had to earn it. He started again from the scratch and is reaping the success after having a memorable debut season.
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He didn’t set any major goals going into the tournament but was in a league of his own right from the word go. He made his first-class debut against the defending champions Mumbai at Lahli barely a month after turning 23.
What happened next saw the rise of an aggressive bowler who troubled Mumbai's veteran batsmen on a consistent basis and ended up taking 9 wickets on his debut including a fifer in the first innings. It was not enough for his team to sneak home in a low-scoring encounter as Mumbai got the better of Tamil Nadu by 2 wickets.
“Just like any other cricketer, I wanted to earn my place in the XI and if I managed to do so, I wanted to retain and cement my place with a notable performance. I played my first match against Mumbai on a pacer-friendly wicket at Lahli. Being a pacer, there were added responsibilities and a little pressure to perform well.
“All the three pacers who played in the match were desperate to deliver and had to come up with wickets. I felt that I bowled well and ended up taking a lot of wickets. It was a dream debut for me,” said Vignesh.
The wickets of Armaan Jaffer and Manish Pandey were satisfying
They used to say ‘One of the keys to happiness is having no expectations.’ He didn’t have any personal goal going into his debut season fearing that it will be a huge let down for him and his confidence if his expectations are not met. Instead, he put his team forward and came out with flying colours.
“I just wanted to take one match at a time and bowl according to the team's requirements. I think I was a bit more successful for putting the team ahead of me. If I had a lot of personal expectations and failed to meet them, it will be demoralising for me going into the future. So, I limited my expectations to picking one or two wickets whenever the team wanted and I ended up picking a lot of wickets,” he added.
He was Tamil Nadu’s best bowler in the tournament as he ended his debut season by picking up 37 wickets in 9 matches at an average of just over 22 and getting a wicket every 48 balls, numbers that are too good for a young pacer who is playing in his first season at this level.
When asked about the wickets he cherished the most, he said “ All the 37 wickets were memorable to me. To pick one or two wickets is difficult. The way I bounced out Manish Pandey in the quarter-finals at Vizag and the wicket of Armaan Jaffer in my debut match at Lahli were satisfying.”
He had a well-set Jaffer caught behind with a delivery that pitched on off-stump and just moved a little bit to kiss the edge of the bat and went straight to the wicket-keeper Dinesh Karthik. In Pandey’s case, it was a short delivery, which was bang on target and brushed the gloves of the Indian International before Baba Inderjith did the rest in the slip cordon.
Deservedly, he was rewarded with a call-up to the Rest Of India squad to face Gujarat at Mumbai from January 20 and has caught the eyes of few IPL franchises. With the IPL auctions just around the corner, the youngster is hoping to be picked by any of the teams and wants to contribute to their success.
Talking about his successful debut season, he said “I was happy for being selected in the Rest of India squad. The selection came as a surprise to me and it was an honour to feature in the squad that features the 16 best players in the country.
“Achieving this in my first season was morale boosting. If I get a place in the RoI XI (which is likely to happen), I want to do well. I just hope that I get picked by any of the IPL teams. I don’t have any particular team in my mind, but if get a chance, I will do my best for the team and help them in their cause.
“I went for a trial with two teams, Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils. It’s up to them if they want to pick me.”
Brett Lee inspired me to take up fast bowling
Vignesh caught the eye of the selectors when he was just 13 years old as he picked up 7 wickets in an under-14 match and the interesting fact about this spell is 5 out of the 7 wickets were clean bowled. He started off as a batsman who could bowl and decided to take fast bowling seriously because bowling fast is something he fascinated after seeing the likes of Brett Lee and Javagal Srinath.
It was a big gamble because Tamil Nadu hasn’t produced a lot of good pacers in the past. Playing at Chepauk, a venue that is known to assist the spinners could be the prime reason for this. Lakshmipathy Balaji made it big as he had a brief stint with the Indian team across all the three formats. Apart from him, no other medium pacer made headlines from Tamil Nadu. TA Sekhar is someone who did well in the domestic circuit and failed to play more matches for India.
“I have been bowling medium pace since my childhood. During my younger days, I was someone who can contribute with both bat and ball and as the days progressed, I took up bowling seriously and put in a lot of efforts to become a full-time pacer.
“I like to bowl fast and was inspired by the likes of Brett Lee and Javagal Srinath and took up pace bowling. In simple words, I started my career as a medium pacer, progressed as a medium pacer and still I bowl medium pace,” Vignesh opined.
The road to success was not a bed of roses for the Thiruvallur-born pacer, as he suffered a shin injury that kept him out of action for a while. It was when he moved to TNCA first division giants Jolly Rovers from yet another first division team, India Pistons. Playing for either Jolly Rovers or Vijay CC is a big achievement for any professional cricketer in Tamil Nadu and he did that at a very young age.
But, his joy short-lived after the injury. But, the pacer, who likes Dale Steyn and Mitchell Starc in modern day cricket, had a lot of grit and determination just like his idols and came back stronger.
“The injury was not as bad as I initially thought. Though it wasn't a career-threatening one, I was out for two months and there were a lot of uncertainties. I wasn't afraid about the injury and worried about losing pace and my future as a fast bowler.
“I just wanted to come back sooner than expected. Bharath Reddy sir (the guy who is in-charge of Chemplast teams), Ajay Kudua sir and Jaikumar sir (both are coaches at Jolly Rovers) monitored me closely when I was injured. When I had a stint at the MRF pace academy, both Senthilnathan and Glenn McGrath (in-charges of MRF pace academy) spoke to me about overcoming injuries. Their words motivated me a lot,” he said.
Working with Glenn McGrath was very helpful
Vignesh has worked closely with Australian fast bowling great Glenn McGrath for the last three years. The young pacer has learnt a lot of tricks from the Aussie, who was instrumental in his career as a fast bowler.
Speaking about McGrath’s influence in his bowling, he said, I have been working with Glenn McGrath for the past three years. He is one of the best fast bowlers to have played the game and it was a good opportunity for me to work with him. He shared a lot about bowling in the longer formats.
“I learnt how to be patient and approach every session. He also taught me how to make a plan, work it out and execute it successfully and emphasised a lot on the discipline a fast bowler should have. He shared a piece of his mind on bowling with the red ball especially on maintaining the line and length and how to generate swing with it.
Though he had a fantastic debut season, there must be a disappointment in him for not helping his team lift the elusive trophy. This panned out to be yet another season in which Tamil Nadu showed enough promise and failed to win the tournament and thus by taking the dreaded number to 29, the number of years since they last won the Ranji Trophy.
But, this was not a disappointing season for the south Indian side by any means as they bowed out with a lot of positives out of which the performances of the pacers being right at the top. Vignesh along with his fellow pacers, Aswin Crist and T Natarajan rose to the occasion, complemented each other well and helped their team reach the semi-finals where they were beaten by Mumbai.
Vignesh credited both Abhinav Mukund (captain) and Hrishikesh Kanitkar (coach) for giving the players a lot of confidence and playing a big role in the team’s success. They handled each and every player well and rotated the players according to the combination the team required for each and every match. This also helped the players from getting burned out before the end of the tournament.
To avoid any sort of negativity in the minds of the players, they clearly mentioned their role and the reason why they were asked to sit out. The players too made a strong comeback after being asked to sit out and called the shots right.
For instance, Vignesh was asked to sit out of the Madhya Pradesh in spite of the amazing start to his season to play an extra spinner as the wicket looked to assist spin. In the next match, he came back and destroyed a Baroda batting line-up by taking 8 wickets that earned him the Player of the Match and gave his team a crucial innings victory.
When asked about the role of Kanitkar and Mukund in the team, Vignesh quoted,“As a team, we did well this season. We had a young squad as our average age this season was just 24 and everyone wanted to deliver as a team. The bowling unit, in particular, backed each other well.
“We were informed that if someone misses out from a match, it’s because of the team combination and it motivated us to come back stronger from the break. Everyone put their hands up and came out on top whenever the team needed us. This is one of the reasons why we all bowled well throughout the tournament.
Both Mukund and Kanitkar didn’t treat me as an amateur cricketer and oozed in a lot of confidence. They gave us the license to go for the kill. In spite of our inexperience, they shared a lot of inputs with us just like they do for the senior pros. We share a good rapport with both the captain and the coach. They told us what’s need to be done and we exactly did that.”
The last four months were one of the best phases of his life and there is a long way to go for the right-arm medium pacer if he wants to reach the top. He is on the right path as he is already working on his bowling to adjust according to the demands of limited-over formats.
“This is one of the best phases of my life and a great start to my cricketing career. Still, there is a long way to go. I will take this as a motivation and do well in the upcoming seasons. Now that we are going into the limited-overs phase, I felt that it will be better if I have a yorker or a slow ball in my armoury and I am already working towards it. Few variations in my bowling will help me in doing well in the limited-overs,” he concluded.
Vignesh is an aggressive bowler who is capable of bowling at a decent pace and has a very good accuracy when it comes to line and lengths. The youngster should not get carried away by what he has achieved in his debut season and should always look to strive hard for more success. With age on his side, he can only improve in the coming years and if his performances in his debut season are anything to go by, he could spearhead the Indian bowling attack one day.
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