If I didn't get enough batting, I wouldn't go to school: Pradosh Ranjan Paul's journey from a 'notorious' 12-year-old in Odisha to TN's captain at 22

There are only four players in the India A squad for the Emerging Asia Cup 2023 who haven't made it to the IPL level yet. Of those four, there's one name that jumps up off the page, a young man who has played only two List A matches in his career, but has already been fast-tracked into the national 50-over setup.

When you watch Pradosh Ranjan Paul bat, it's clear why. The 22-year-old is as classy as they come, even by southpaw standards. Now, on the back of a Ranji Trophy season in which he amassed a team-high 631 runs in seven matches at an average of 70.11, he is all set for higher honors. The first of those chances will come when India A tour Bangladesh later this month.

Seated behind his screen with an unwavering smile on his face, Pradosh answers all of Sportskeeda's questions in painstaking detail and with brutal honesty. In an exclusive, tell-all chat, the youngster opens up about the early part of his career, his ambitions, the struggles he has overcome, and much more.

The secret behind his success, the worst-kept secret of all time, shines through as soon as the conversation starts. Pradosh Ranjan Paul LOVES batting.

"To be honest, I've been approaching the game in the same way, right from when I started during my U12 days. Obviously, the technical and tactical aspects have improved, but the love for the game has remained constant right from the start. I simply love batting. I just LOVE batting!" gushes Pradosh.

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"There's an academy nearby, why don't you join?" - Sowing the early seeds

Pradosh Ranjan Paul flaunting the TSC badge before moving on to higher honors

Pradosh's formative years were filled with cricket. He indulged in casual versions of the sport in Odisha, where he was born, before moving to Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu when he was entering his teenage years.

Pradosh's father, a banker, encouraged him to pick up the sport at an organized level, and it soon became clear that it was his calling. How could it not be?

"Before coming to Tiruppur, I used to play tennis-ball cricket and gully cricket in Odisha. My dad was also a cricketer, and I used to play with him. I had never joined a professional club before my dad got transferred to Tiruppur in 2011-12. I came here and my dad told me, 'There's an academy nearby, why don't you join?' I was immediately very excited about it, and everything started from there," reminisces Pradosh.

The Tiruppur School of Cricket played an instrumental role in shaping Pradosh's career. Facebook posts dating back to 2013 and 2014 can be found chronicling the young batter's exploits. It's no surprise that scores well above the 200-run mark are quite regular features on the page, with congratulatory messages from well-wishers monopolizing the comments' section.

"I joined Tiruppur School of Cricket, and I'm extremely thankful to my mentor Mr. Ramesh Kumar. He has been my backbone since then and guided me a lot in my career. I've always been thankful to TAC as well. Then Sir saw me and the love I have for the game. He liked me from a very young age. Even though I was very notorious then, I was the first one to come and the last one to leave in every practice session. I kept batting. I never used to go to school, I'd tell my coach, 'This is not enough for me, I need to bat more.'," Pradosh recollects with a smile.

With the slightest tinge of embarrassment and a whole bunch of good-natured humor, Pradosh takes a trip down memory lane to his U12 days, when he reported to the team hotel in whites thinking he'd directly play a match.

"I started playing some club games and district games. The same year, I got selected for the U14 state probables. I was new to all of this. I never knew what the system was like. After the district level, round-robin, combined districts, these things were all so strange to me. I remember one story - When I was 12 years old, they gave me a reporting date in Chennai, and I thought we'd directly play a match. So I went directly to the team hotel in whites and shoes (laughs)," Pradosh remarks.

Soon after he started playing cricket at a professional level, Pradosh realized that he has everything it takes to shape a meaningful career out of it. His schooling was almost entirely sacrificed, but the support of his parents and the mountains of runs he was scoring made the decision a straightforward one.

"That year I played my state games, and it has been a good journey since then. I was growing as a cricketer, and my parents helped me a lot. I'm very thankful to them, and all they've ever wanted for me is to play cricket. I literally gave up my schooling altogether and was giving my exams online," the southpaw says.

"During my U14 level, I decided I had to be a cricketer. There was a season where I got around 800 runs with three double hundreds, and everyone came to know about me. The year before, even though I was the best batsman in South Zone, I wasn't known much. Once it happened in Tamil Nadu, though, everyone realized I should be taking it up as a career," he continues.

"My first game for Tamil Nadu was at the U14 level in Goa. I was very nervous in the first two games (against Andhra and Karnataka) and I was opening the batting. I luckily managed to score hundreds, and after that, whenever I stepped in, I felt like I wanted the team to win because of me. After that, at whatever age category, I kept that mindset. I want to be the first one to raise my hand and do it for the team. That gives me the drive to do well," Pradosh mentions.

The runs never stopped after that. At the U16 level, Pradosh was always close to the top of the national charts. Digging up the leaderboards of the tournament reveals a certain N Thakur Tilak Varma, with 435 runs while representing Hyderabad, in second place.

Yes, the same Tilak Varma who recently collected his maiden international call-up after shining in the IPL. The only name ahead of him? Pradosh Ranjan Paul, representing Tamil Nadu, with 479 runs from five matches. The fact that the duo have come this far is no coincidence; their ability was as clear then as it is now.

Between his age-group bow and his Ranji Trophy debut, Pradosh hammered as many as 29 centuries for Tamil Nadu. Some of those were double hundreds, and all of those were knocks that made people sit up and take notice of the prodigious talent who was making oppositions look amateur even at higher age categories.

By the time his chance in the Ranji Trophy came around, Pradosh had oodles of experience under his belt across a wide range of conditions. Despite all that, though, there were understandably a few jitters.

Pradosh might only be 22, but a lot has transpired since his Ranji debut. A global pandemic wreaked havoc, inflation rose and fell more than the sea level, cricket stopped and then started again. He looks back on January 2019 with a wizened eye.

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"How will I face him? Will I show up? Do I belong at this level?" - Pradosh Ranjan Paul gets candid about his Ranji debut

Pradosh Ranjan Paul looks to loft one on his Ranji Trophy debut for Tamil Nadu

Debuts are never easy. Pradosh gets refreshingly candid about his maiden Ranji Trophy appearance for Tamil Nadu, describing his sleepless nights and intrusive thoughts in detail. The first run seemed like it would never come, but an edge down to fine leg signaled the start of what is bound to be a storied career.

"When was it? [smiles] My debut was four years ago. At that time, I was obviously nervous. They told me I was in the XI before the game and it was okay, but the day I knew that I'd bat the next day if a wicket fell, I became extremely nervous. I couldn't sleep at all and was waking up every 30-40 minutes. I was thinking, 'How will I face him?', 'Will I show up?', 'Do I belong at this level?' It took me around 25 balls to get my first run, which was an edge to fine leg. I thought to myself, 'Oh, thank god I'm not getting a duck on my debut.' After I took that one run, instinct took over and I was batting more freely like I did in my age-group days. There was an easy hundred there for the taking that day, but I missed out," the 22-year-old recalls with a smidgen of regret.

In the Tamil Nadu team in Pradosh's debut game, eight of the XI have been part of IPL setups and three of them have represented the Men in Blue on the biggest stage. It wouldn't have been easy for the then 18-year-old to seamlessly gel with the seniors in the dressing room. As time passed, though, things got easier.

"I had played some club cricket with the seniors in the dressing room, but it was still slightly new to me. It took some time. I played just one game in my debut season, and two games in the next. The third year, I didn't play any games but that was the year I felt very comfortable in the dressing room. It felt like an age-category team and not a Ranji team. Last year, we all knew each other and I felt even more confident. I acquired a sense of belonging, which is very important, and felt like I'd definitely do well," says Pradosh.

Pradosh's Tamil Nadu career didn't take off in the way his debut suggested it would. The technically sound batter didn't collect many caps in his next two seasons before the COVID-19 wave ensured that he spent more time on the sidelines.

In the 2023 Ranji Trophy, though, it all came together. It wasn't easy at the start, with Pradosh himself believing that his career was on the line after a disappointing display against Andhra Pradesh. The youngster had everything to play for when TN faced off against Delhi just before the turn of the year.

"I didn't get to bat in the first game against Hyderabad. Then, against Andhra, I batted and didn't make runs in either innings. The first innings, I tried to hit while batting with the tail, and that was fine. But in the second innings, I went in to bat when a few wickets were left and played a horrible shot that left the team very down. And we lost the match from there. So before the Delhi game, I wasn't even sure if I'd play. Thankfully, the captain and coach backed me. I saw that game as my last for Tamil Nadu. All these thoughts were running in my head," he admits.

Delhi put on 303 in their first innings, and although Tamil Nadu were decently poised at 162/2 at one stage, they slipped to 200/5. They needed Pradosh, batting at No. 7, to give them an invaluable first-innings lead.

He duly delivered, stitching together match-defining partnerships with Vijay Shankar and Aswin Crist to take TN to 427. Pradosh careessed a few glorious boundaries through the cover region while also deftly using the pace of the ball behind square. When the opportunity presented itself, he threw in a couple of cheeky upper-cuts.

The match ended in an unfortunate (and arguably unfair) draw, but Pradosh had already played the innings that would serve as the definitive turning point of his fortunes.

"I tried to play as cautiously as possible. As a batter, there's the chance that any ball can get you out. So I was very focused and every ball, I was just thinking, 'This shouldn't be my last ball.' Once I got my fifty and got my eye in, I started playing my natural game and went for my shots. After the hundred which got us the lead against Delhi, I was very confident," Pradosh says.

Pretty much every modern-day batter needs a trademark century celebration. Shubman Gill bows with an elegance that matches his batting; KL Rahul drowns out the noise, which he frankly faces a lot of; Ravindra Jadeja swishes and slashes his blade.

Pradosh pulled one out of the bag too when he crossed the three-figure mark against Delhi. He leapt up in the air in exaltation before getting down on one knee and plunging the toe of his vertical bat into the turf, helmet resting carefully on its handle.

We'll be seeing a lot more of these celebrations in the coming years

I've done it before during my U25 days, and a lot of people liked it. So I thought I'd do it in a live game as well. After that, I had thought to myself that I should do it whenever I get a century. Then I realized that I shouldn't do it for all centuries but only when I feel like I've put a lot of hard work for the century. When the century means a lot to me and doesn't come easy, then I'll do it [laughs]!"

Unlike many subcontinental batters, Pradosh grows in stature when there's pace and bounce on offer. If this isn't obvious while watching him bat generally, just take a look at his knocks of 55 and 169 on a treacherous Brabourne wicket earlier this year against Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy.

"That was my first game in Mumbai. I had played a lot of cricket around the country, but never in Mumbai. When I saw the Brabourne Stadium, I was awestruck. I had never seen something like that in my life, and again I fell in love with cricket. When I entered the stadium and the nets, I was extremely excited. I love to play on bouncy wickets, and whenever there's a lot of pace, it suits my style. I loved that wicket so much that I just wanted to bat for as long as possible," he says.

Pradosh's purple patch didn't stop there. He racked up 84 against Maharashtra and 153 against Assam, capping off a breakthrough individual campaign. There was a surprise in store towards the end of Tamil Nadu's Ranji Trophy campaign, though, one that would've been laughed at just a few weeks earlier had it been suggested.

Vijay Shankar [left] was among the senior players in the side when Pradosh captained Tamil Nadu

With Sai Kishore unavailable, Pradosh was handed the unprecedented chance to lead the side against Saurashtra. He opens up about the thoughts that swarmed his head ahead of the clash and the key tenets required to skipper a side filled with more experienced, more established cricketers.

"I was the vice-captain, and I was shocked at first. This was my first proper full season. I was getting all the flashbacks, where I was thinking about whether I'd be in the team or not. Then I thought that they've trusted me with the responsibility and that I have to go about it calmly. It wasn't like I hadn't done it before, I had captained all the teams at the age-group levels. I love to take responsibility, and it's not like I was too stressed about it. I told myself I'll follow my instincts and lead in the way I know how to even at a higher level. Once we were out in the middle, everything was normal," he says.

"I think confidence is the most important thing. Without it, you can't be a leader. I also thought about this, that there are so many senior players. But my confidence kicked in, and I thought I'll just do whatever I feel is right. They were also very supportive and always gave their suggestions, which I took," Pradosh adds.

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"Those numbers have never justified my batting" - Pradosh looking to set the TNPL record straight

Pradosh Ranjan Paul has all the shots in the book, but they haven't come off so far in the TNPL

Success and runs have followed Pradosh around like a puppy on a leash. He has had a prolific career in almost all forms of cricket, but the Tamil Nadu Premier League hasn't been too kind to the batter so far.

Playing for the Lyca Kovai Kings in 2018 and 2019, Pradosh played eight matches for a combined 117 runs. A switch to the Nellai Royal Kings seemed to produce a slight improvement, but it was a false dawn as he put together 150 runs in 10 matches over the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

The start of the 2023 campaign indicated that Pradosh, who moved to the Chepauk Super Gillies, had picked up his T20 game as he hammered 88 in his first game. He couldn't carry that momentum forward, though, making four single-digit scores on the trot to round off another disappointing run.

"The TNPL has been a stage where I haven't performed to my capabilities. Those numbers have never justified my batting, and it's something I need to work on. I wouldn't say that I don't have the shots or anything like that. I'll definitely work on it and do well here also, like I've done in the other two formats," Pradosh insists.

"I've never seen anything that has happened as a failure; it's only learning. Previously, I used to get emotional and think about how I wasn't able to score runs in the TNPL. This year also, started off well but ended in a very bad way. Everything is a learning, though. I'll understand what my flaws are and come back harder next time. I need to be more consistent," he adds.

Pradosh obviously has higher aspirations. These days, though, those thoughts are consigned to the back of his mind, with the front occupied by a steadfast focus on his preparation and immediate future.

"I used to think like that before, about how I want to play in the IPL. But whenever I went in to bat, it served as external pressure and made things worse. I'm not even thinking about the future. I used to think, 'Will I play the IPL? Will I play for India? Will I at least play for India A?' But in the last year, I've changed the way I've thought about my cricket. I just think about the day at hand and the next day, focus on the journey and not the destination. If this is the best I can do in practice, I will do that. Of course, I have a lot of expectations and get these thoughts now and then. But control the controllables!"

Pradosh hammered 88 runs for the Chepauk Super Gillies in his first outing of TNPL 2023

When asked about his dreams of playing for Team India, Pradosh, who has always idolized Virat Kohli, bobs his head up and down rapidly.

"Definitely. Definitely! It's everyone's ultimate dream. If I think, "Oh, a season is over and I should've done better to further my India dream," it'll only make me sad. The destination is in my head, but there's no point thinking about it. In the last year, I've just been focusing on the journey," he says.

Pradosh spoke to Sportskeeda before news of his call-up to the India A side for the Emerging Asia Cup surfaced. He's closer than he's ever been to his "ultimate dream", having answered the "Will I play for India A?" question.