“My dream is to play Test cricket for India” - Abishek Porel 'pulls' over on the big stage ready to bide his time

A cold winter morning in Kolkata. Bengal are playing Chhattisgarh in the 2023/24 Ranji Trophy. Abishek Porel arrives at Eden Gardens 40 minutes before the reporting time for Day 2. He is batting on 47 overnight.

He bats the whole morning, through the entire afternoon. Soon after the final session resumes, he completes a double, runs around the crease in a semicircle, opens his helmet, throws his head back in both ecstasy and relief, and raises his bat to the applauding dugout. The 21-year-old has a maiden century. He is eventually dismissed on 114 off 219 balls.

On his way out of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) lobby that evening, he says:

“Last evening, our head coach Laxmi Ratan Shukla said to me, ‘If you don’t get out to the short ball, you will get a hundred.’”

He arrived way before any of his teammates, just to practice leaving bouncers.

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Around the same time the previous year, Porel had perished to the short ball in the Ranji final. It came just four deliveries after a well-set Manoj Tiwary got out, with Bengal still 32 runs away from making Saurashtra bat again. The wicketkeeper-batter had to rise to the adversity, handhold the tail and dig deep. Taking on deep square leg and holing out was tantamount to throwing his wicket away.

“Yeah, you can say, it was a trigger. Because I loved playing the pull shot, I was angry with myself for getting out to it,” Abishek Porel tells in a freewheeling chat with Sportskeeda.

And it wasn’t the only instance the southpaw, with a tall frame, employed his favourite shot and fell prey to it.

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Cut to IPL 2024. Abishek Porel scored 21.71 percent of his total runs playing the pull and hook against fast bowlers. You can almost close your eyes and see him complete a clean pirouette with the ball sailing deep into the leg side. Six of his 13 maximums were part of that tally, to go with as many boundaries. The dismissals column stood at three – twice to the pull and once while hooking.

“It is just practice. My favourite shot is the pull. So it was pretty clear to me that I have to either duck or master it. And I decided to make it my strength. Because pull is a scoring shot these days. And that’s exactly how I got so many runs in the IPL.

“I have practiced a lot in the off-season – batted against plastic balls, wet balls; faced deliveries from close range, took blows on the body, just to toughen up from within. I have done these things over and over again to get better at it. I know I have also gotten out to the pull in a couple of innings, and I have to put in more work so that I don’t get dismissed at all,” Porel elaborated.

It all started in the Delhi Capitals’ opening match of the season. Porel was on the bench, though, listed as one of the impact players.

“There wasn’t any disappointment as such. I was just waiting for an opportunity. I had a good domestic season, I did well in the match simulations, I was batting well in the nets. So they had given me a heads-up that I might have to bat any time. So I wasn’t really disappointed. I was prepared to go out and deliver,” he said.

Against the Punjab Kings at their new stadium in Mullanpur, DC found themselves in a spot of bother when skipper Rishabh Pant trundled back at 111 for four in the 13th over. And Abishek Porel was asked to pad up.

“Opportunities would come like this and I have to make use of them,” he told himself.

And boy, did he maximise the first one. From 149 for eight at the end of the 19th over, DC powered to 174. Thanks to Porel carting eventual Purple Cap winner Harshal Patel around for 25 runs. Four of them were short balls which accounted for three boundaries and a six, apart from a length delivery pummelled over deep midwicket and a low full-toss drilled to long on to complete the innings.

“I realised the magnitude of it right after. But I also knew I was waiting for exactly an opportunity like this, that I had worked so hard to stand up in moments like these. So it felt really good and it also told me I would get more matches,” Porel stated.

You’d find the word ‘opportunity’ in each of his last three answers. Despite turning 21 only last year, he has been long held guilty of not making opportunities count.

DC picked Abishek Porel as Rishabh Pant’s replacement for IPL 2023, ahead of some established domestic names like Sheldon Jackson and Luvnith Sisodia. To put things in perspective, Porel had played only three T20 matches for Bengal till then.

“I didn’t really go to the trials expecting I would get picked. I just normally batted and enjoyed myself without any selection pressure. I knew it would happen if it was meant to happen. I had gone there normally and got picked unexpectedly. It just happened suddenly; no one really spoke to me about it,” he revealed.

He might have played only four matches that season. But that selection signalled a turning point in his fledgling career. Unexpected, indeed.

“It was a big reality check. I had started taking things for granted. I used to think like, ‘Yeah, things will happen.’ But after going to the IPL, I realised the pool is huge and I have competition from several players, across countries. So I focused on the areas I needed improvement in so that I could have a better showing next year. I discussed with people, sat down with myself, underwent intense practice sessions, to work on those things,” Abishek Porel conceded.

While there wasn’t any doubt about his talent or second thoughts about his justified entry into the top T20 league, there were question marks over his temperament. Before the hundred against Chhattisgarh, Porel had just 10 scores of fifty-plus from 45 innings across formats with the highest score of 73.

“Yeah I was not able to convert starts. I was scoring 50-60 and then getting out. But I was constantly looking for an answer: Was it a lack of concentration? Was there any technical fault? Was I getting tired? I didn’t quite understand what was going wrong. It was after putting in a lot of work that I realised I was getting complacent after scoring a fifty and I was rushing thereafter. So I started practicing harder and played more matches to make sure I didn’t get satisfied even after batting two-three hours,” he explained.

He hit a similar roadblock in IPL 2024, too. After the heroics against PBKS, Porel could only manage 18 runs facing 21 balls spanning three innings, including an embarrassing five-ball duck while chasing 273 versus KKR.

The immense potential aside, Abishek Porel is someone who is very pragmatic and thinks on his feet. While the Capitals management gave him the much-needed security, he knew how to seek out the positivies.

“Both Ricky sir and Sourav sir gave me a positive vibe, saying, ‘You will play. No worries. Ups and downs are part and parcel of the game. But don’t be disheartened. It’s a matter of one or two games.’ And I had performed well in the first match, so I knew the kind of scenarios I could face. And I knew, in T20 cricket, a couple of shots off the middle would push my confidence back up," Porel recalled.

It also helps when you are young – short-sighted with a short-term memory.

“After getting out, I would introspect my dismissal for some time and then move on. I tried to rectify the mistakes and not repeat them in practice or the next match,” he added.

Two dismissals must have rankled, nonetheless. Against the Mumbai Indians, he played 30 deliveries and looked all set for launch towards the 235-run target. But taking on Jasprit Bumrah wasn’t probably the right call as a catch straight down to long on cut short his innings on 41. 10 days later, chasing a paltry 90 versus the Gujarat Titans, he was off in a blazing fashion before another premature end on 15 off seven balls.

“Yeah it was disappointing. The captain had asked me to bat with a positive intent. But after getting a start, I had to remain not out on 30 instead of perishing for 15. But these are all a learning curve, where I am learning what not to do. I made this same mistake two or three times and I discussed it with Sourav sir, Ricky sir, Pravin sir, David Warner, Rishabh Pant. I would speak to all these guys and then identify the common things they said. I just didn't want to throw my wicket away after getting set,” Porel mentioned.

So, what was the consensus?

“When I am batting on 15 off seven deliveries, even if I concede two dots and then hit a boundary, I am on 19 off 10 balls, and which is good enough for T20. And that is exactly what everyone told me: It is okay to face a couple of dots because I have the ability to make up for it,” he added.

The match against MI also saw Porel promoted to the top three, where he usually bats for Bengal in white-ball cricket.

“We didn’t discuss it as such. But they were making me bat against the new ball in the nets. So they were preparing me as an option for if someone failed or any changes were required. It kind of told me that I might have to bat at the top and I prepared accordingly. But my main motto in this IPL was to perform in whichever position I batted,” he reiterated.

Mitchell Marsh flying back home with a right hamstring tear and Ricky Bhui being terribly out of form, helped his cause. What also helped was the move let him join forces with a man with a similar plan.

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"I know it's been just one single IPL season" - Abishek Porel

Abishek Porel batting with Rishabh Pant in IPL 2024

Enter Jake Fraser-McGurk – another 2002-born maverick.

Their first two partnerships were worth 84 off 30 balls and 114 from 45 deliveries.

“He has a very clear mindset. If the ball is in his range, he will go for his shots. Even if he gets out, he would still go for it in the next match,” Abishek Porel said of his partner in crime.

One firecracker can be lit from another, and Porel was a beneficiary of the sparks the Victorian let fly, not least the confidence he was exuding.

“Things became easier if he started rapidly. Because when runs are coming from one end, the bowlers are obviously trying different things. And in the process, I would end up getting some loose balls. So I benefitted in that way because of him,” he added.

He was a mere spectator versus RR when Fraser-McGurk brought up his fifty off just 19 balls while Porel was still on nine. But this time, the southpaw decided to ride the wave and build on the start. He wasn’t all hammer and tongs – 15 singles and two doubles interspersed with seven boundaries and three maximums. Tellingly, there were no consecutive boundaries.

And it was only fitting that a pull shot for six over deep midwicket off Avesh Khan brought up a maiden IPL half-century.

“It felt really nice. It was like I vindicated the franchise backing me. This was the reason I started playing cricket. Growing up, I watched all these stars perform in the IPL. And to be able to perform on this very stage, felt very satisfying. My parents were very proud, but I know it’s been just one single IPL season and there’s a long way to go,” he said.

The push we need sometimes comes from closely working in the practicals with your school topper, who you didn’t even talk to in class. Jake Fraser-McGurk was that classmate. Abishek Porel capped off the season with another match-winning fifty against LSG. In the six matches they batted together, the duo tallied 289 runs at a sensational average of 48.16 and an astronomical strike rate of 240.84.

Porel finished with 327 runs at an average of 32.7 and a strike rate of 159.51. His bullish mate scored three more, albeit playing five matches fewer.

“The management was very happy. Ricky sir has obviously backed me and I could repay the faith. He told me that the franchise was happy with my performance and they wanted to take things forward. But they didn’t tell me anything about retention because you can never be sure about the mega auction,” he said.

After all those disappointments, self-doubts, detractions, missed opportunities, the two-and-a-half months of IPL 2024 saw Abishek Porel make a statement to the world, not least to himself. And he didn’t forget anyone who played any small or big part in the turnaround of his fortunes.

“Laxmi Da used to give me throwdowns and worked with me on some other aspects before the Mushtaq Ali. Then after the Ranji Trophy, I trained with Joydeep sir. And I was interacting with Sourav sir throughout – I used to send him videos whenever there was anything to improve in my basics. And that’s how I developed range hitting,” he detailed.

You know he has got his head in the right place when he doesn’t want to ape even arguably the best T20 batter.

“My strength isn’t playing like Suryakumar Yadav; I am not a 360-degree player. My game is based on timing and proper cricketing shots, and I back my style. I don’t rely on reverse sweeps or scoops. I did try the scoop this season, albeit without much success. In the end, I understood I would succeed through my own style and I decided to just back myself,” he specified.

Data and statistics also helped to a certain degree, becoming almost like cheat codes and giving a head start.

“I take a look at which bowlers bowl what type of deliveries. Every year, bowlers come up with new variations. So we have those videos coming on our group. It is just like a revision before an exam,” he mentioned.

Like every other cricketer from Bengal, Porel had special praise reserved for Sourav Ganguly.

“He has played a massive role in what I am today. Without him, I wouldn’t have gotten this platform. He helps me a lot. We discuss batting at length. Whenever I make any mistake, he immediately messages and tells me where to improve. He has guided and motivated me right through,” he added.

If you followed Abishek Porel closely in the last two years, you’d have noticed that, along with his array of shots, the other thing that has gotten broader is his forearms. He laughs when complimented on it.

“Gym is very important. My goal is to be as strong as possible. Running is always part of the routine, but I lay more emphasis on powerlifting and gaining muscles because that will help me generate power while batting,” he pressed.

Working out is his way of channelising energy and emotions – therapeutic in a way. If he has gotten out cheaply, you’d soon find him headed to the gym with a Marshall speaker playing in his hand.

“I do punish myself. I go for an intense gym session – I start doing pushups or remain in squatting position. If I get very mad at myself, I feel like throwing things but I instead go somewhere and sit on my own. I do take time to move on if I am extremely disappointed, but I become fine after waking up the next morning,” he said.

It also allows him to not follow any diet and eat everything you get in a Bengali household.

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“When dada got selected for Bengal, I realised this also gets you in the papers” – Abishek Porel

Abishek and Ishan Porel celebrate India's 2024 T20 World Cup win

For anyone in Bengal in the early 2000s, it was a cardinal sin to not be a fan of the then Indian captain. While Abishek Porel was inspired by Sourav Ganguly the leader, his game was shaped by the dynamic duo of Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden.

“I have always been aggressive. And I am quite fortunate that nobody asked me to curb my attacking instincts. Because they know I’d get out while defending. Now that the difficulty level is increasing, I need to have a better judgment of which ball to hit and which one to leave. But I never want to let go of my aggression because that’s my strong point,” he told Sportskeeda.

There comes a seminal moment when one finds their calling. For Abishek Porel, it was when his cousin brother was getting some attention. Ishan Porel, a fast bowler, four years older than him, was part of Prithvi Shaw’s victorious Under-19 World Cup team in 2018.

“I started taking an interest after playing gully cricket. Then, when dada got selected for Bengal, I realised this also gets you in the papers. When he went to play the Under-19 World Cup, I was fascinated by the fame he was getting. And I immediately wanted to follow in his footsteps,” he expressed.

After initially training at National Sporting Club in his hometown Chandannagar, Ishan took his nine-year-old brother to coach Bibhas Das at Kolkata’s Deshbandhu Park. A quintessential cricketing script, yeah?

“I played a few Under-14 matches under his coaching. And it was then that he started taking a special interest in me. If I talk about the road from Under-14 to senior cricket, Bibhas sir deserves full credit for those formative years. He guided me a lot, almost treating me like one of his own. He asked me to stay with him at his place, saying, ‘We will make it work.’ There was a span of three-four years I stayed with him.

“I would commute to and fro, but it was like five days at his place and two days at home. Dada also stayed with me sometimes. Those years, from 2011 until I got picked in the IPL, I would give the entire credit to Bibhas sir. Whenever I have called him, it has never happened that he didn’t pick up. I would land up at his place without any reason, and he never asked me to go home,” Abishek Porel elaborated.

He emulated his brother when he received the senior Bengal cap in February 2022. It didn’t take long for the scoreboard to flash: ‘c Porel b Porel’. His maiden innings, though, lasted only 19 balls but came at a strike rate of 110.52 with three boundaries to boot. The second outing was much more vindicating. He stroked 53 off 75 deliveries in an unbroken 108-run stand for the seventh wicket with Shahbaz Ahamad as Bengal chased down 349.

“It gave me a lot of confidence. To be fair, my first season went well. And I had that confidence going; I was hitting the ball well. Usually, game time comes at a premium in your first season. People say your first-class career starts from the second year. So I looked to enjoy my first season; I just went with the flow,” Porel said.

He ended the 2021/22 Ranji Trophy with 303 runs at an average of 33.66 including three half-centuries.

The second year saw a dip. His average went down to 25.84 with only two fifty-plus scores from 14 innings. Throw into the mix the fashion psychology of an earning 20-year-old. And suddenly, society had the only tangible thing to blame his performances on. Nobody had any questions about his wicketkeeping, though. He effected the most dismissals (40) – next best was Saurabh Nawale (30) – in the 2022/23 Ranji season.

“I know the same people who praise me if I play well, will criticise me when I go through a lean patch. So I don’t take criticism to heart. Just after my first IPL season, when I understood what criticism is and the negativity that comes on social media, I used to get affected by it. But then I spoke to some of the players and understood that it is no big deal, and in fact, a part and parcel of a cricketer’s life,” Abishek Porel explained.

Does he then restrict using social media?

“I do use social media but now, I just clear the notifications from the top. Because the same thing happened in this IPL also. There were praises initially when I started well, followed by criticism during that brief rough patch, and then again praises when I hit form,” he added.

Coming from a small town like Chandannagar, you’d imagine him to be always surrounded by an army of people, be the apple of their eyes.

“My circle has shrunk with time. I had a lot of friends earlier, but I eventually realised, the closer the circle is, the better it is. I have my mom and dad, a couple of friends, and then dada who always motivates me and helps me look ahead. When I go through a low phase, I prefer spending time with Bibhas sir and people who I am actually close to,” he said.

The century against Chhattisgarh changed people’s perception. It also flicked a switch in his head. You ask him about that January morning and he sports a wide grin. He suddenly knew how to do it. From not giving himself enough time at the crease, he now grinds it out and bides his time.

“It was a really, really big moment for me. Because red-ball cricket is very important to me. My dream is to play Test cricket for India. So I finally understood the smell of a first-class hundred. I now know how to reach three figures and I want to continue in the same vein this year as well. I got one when I could have actually gotten more. So I want to convert my starts into three or four big scores this year,” he declared.

One box that is still to be ticked, though, is that of a trophy – the Ranji Trophy. Bengal made the semifinal in Abishek Porel’s debut season. They went a step further the following year and played the final at home. THAT final. Porel battled for a 98-ball 50 in the first innings before falling to the bouncer trap in the second.

“It was very heartbreaking. The trophy was in front of our eyes, at our home ground. We became very emotional after the loss, because we didn’t expect things to end this way. We were very confident, we had such a good pace bowling attack, and yet the trophy was snatched from right under our nose. It took me around two weeks to move on from that final,” he reflected.

Saying he has a “keen interest in captaincy”, he led the Kolkata Tigers to the semifinals of the inaugural Bengal Pro T20 in June. Now, in what is a big validation, he has been picked as a first-choice wicketkeeper for Team B in the Duleep Trophy starting September 5. While he was there in the East Zone squad last year, Kumar Kushagra was preferred over him behind the wickets.

“It’s not really that difficult to switch from white-ball cricket to the red ball. I generally do two-three net sessions. And if I feel I am not ready yet, I do a lot of knocking and practice leaving balls,” he said.

But as the first phase of the 2024/25 Ranji Trophy begins from October 11, Abishek Porel will face a catch-22 situation. With veteran wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha back from Tripura, Porel might have to trade the big gloves, something he had to do in IPL 2024 for Pant.

“Yeah I did face problems initially. But I knew I had no choice but to play as a fielder. So I regularly did catching drills to get the hang of it,” he said.

He, however, looks at the silver lining.

“Having a senior and experienced player like Wriddhi Da would help me a lot. He can tell what to do to not just get into Test cricket but flourish in it. He has always been welcoming whenever I’ve gone to him with any kind of doubt. So it will be a great thing for me,” he added.

Porel made his Bengal debut while Saha was on personal leave before eventually shifting base owing to a fallout with a CAB official.

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“I don’t think I am ready for international cricket just yet” - Abishek Porel

Abishek Porel clicks a picture with MS Dhoni during IPL 2023

If you look at Abishek Porel’s fast-rising stocks, his dynamic demeanour, or his social media, you’d imagine him to be a certain way. Curt, estranged, tunnel vision-ed, and dare we say, PR-ed. But he’s the exact opposite. Warm, affectionate, endearing, easy-going, and always greeting you with a "How are you?" upon meeting. Almost like MS Dhoni, when the great man was starting out.

“He [Dhoni] is a very calm and composed person. It’s not like he doesn’t get excited, but he doesn’t show those emotions on camera. When you are in a pressure situation, the key is to hold your nerve. Because if you can’t, your mind won’t function properly,” Abishek Porel tells in the 30-minute long interview with Sportskeeda.

Everyone knows the importance of holding the nerve. It is the execution part where people falter. Sport is as much mental as it is physical and technical, if not more. And Porel has learnt it young.

“I do meditate. I do it for longer during days’ matches and for less time otherwise. Because I know I have to bat six hours if I have to score a hundred. So I meditate for 10-15 minutes either after waking up in the morning or before going to sleep,” he said with innocence.

One of the best qualities of Abishek Porel is his ability to compartmentalise. He caters to all his interests, without letting one come in the way of another. It’s almost like the childhood timetable which also allows you to go out to play only if it doesn’t hamper studies.

“I have somewhere been inspired by Hardik Pandya. I liked the way he dressed and I spoke to him as well. I share a good bond with him. Whenever we meet, he tells me, ‘Mehnat karte raho. Mehnat nahin chodne ka.’ When I met him in the IPL this year, he was like, ‘Style toh sab mera tum le hi liya. Thoda power badha lo, toh ho jayega baaki kaam,’” he revealed, breaking into laughter.

Some of the mushrooming T20 stars earned a maiden India call-up for the customary Zimbabwe tour after the IPL. With Jitesh Sharma having had a disastrous season and Sanju Samson missing the first two matches owing to the 2024 T20 World Cup celebrations, you’d have been forgiven to consider Abishek Porel’s inclusion.

“I don’t think I performed well enough to get picked for the Zimbabwe tour. I don’t look at specific things like whether they need a wicketkeeper or not. I prefer sticking to my process and the things that are in my control. If an opportunity indeed comes by, then well and good and I will prepare myself accordingly. And if I don’t get selected, I am prepared for that too, because I don’t think I am ready for international cricket just yet. I feel I can take some more time to prepare myself because I have time on my side,” he analysed.

That is the kind of awareness and pragmatism needed to stay on track in today’s cut-throat world. He is among the lucky ones to have learnt it the hard way.

In November of 2021, Abishek Porel was playing the Challenger Trophy, a men’s Under-19 one-day competition, which was almost an audition for the World Cup in two months’ time. He could manage only 78 runs in four matches. He redeemed himself almost immediately, in the Cooch Behar Trophy, the equivalent first-class competition featuring four-day games. Porel scored 716 runs in nine games at a strike rate of 82.11 with three hundreds and four fifties to boot.

But the World Cup train had already chugged out of the platform with Dinesh Bana on it. Porel does have a picture with the trophy, but that was after he was flown in as a reserve player following the Covid-19 outbreak.

“Devang sir [Devang Gandhi was Bengal’s then Under-19 coach] told me that so many players have been forgotten after playing the Under-19 World Cup. He said, ‘If god gave you two options – the Under-19 World Cup and the actual World Cup – which one would you choose?’ I obviously said, the senior World Cup. And he told me if I worked hard in the next four years, I would definitely get my rewards. If I score runs, I need not tell anything to anyone because people will automatically take notice,” he finished.

With more of the self-actualisation, judiciousness, practicality, fitness, hard work, and those cracking pull shots, there's no stopping Abishek Porel.

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