Saransh Jain’s journey to becoming India’s Test cap No. 320 on Sunday is a touching story of never-dying belief in himself and diligent work to improve his skills in red-ball format, for which he was even ready to let go a chance to earn an IPL contract.
Chandrakant Pandit, Jain’s coach at Madhya Pradesh, clearly remembers that open conversation with his ward, which left him an immensely impressed man.
“He did mention to me, especially last season, that he wants to focus on his red ball game. He was very clear about it. It’s not that he is not averse or keen to bowl with a white ball but he wanted to work on his red-ball bowling,” Pandit told PTI.
But that particular chat between Pandit and Jain, who handed his Test debut against Sri Lanka here at the SSC, took place during IPL 2024 when the off-spinner approached him with a rather unusual demand.
Jain, who was with Kolkata Knight Riders as a net bowler, did not want to continue that stint.
“The reason he said then was that rather than spending time with the white ball as a net bowler, he preferred to work on the red ball game and eventually he became a state player,” Pandit, who took over MP’s coaching in 2020, added.
However, Pandit does not have any doubt over Jain’s ability to excel in white-ball format as well.
“He is good enough to play both the formats, he has necessary skills. I am sure if some franchise picks him up in the IPL next season, he will do well there also.
“But he doesn’t want to spend two months bowling with white ball as a net bowler. I really appreciated that he kept on working on his red ball game. He does bowl well, even white ball, when he plays for our state. So, this might just be the beginning for him,” he said.
But when Pandit took over as MP’s coach six years back, Jain was not a regular, often suffering from bouts of self-doubts.
“First season when I came in he was struggling to establish himself. The lack of game time had affected his confidence and I had to talk to him and give him that comfort, telling him to play freely without worrying about other things like selection.”
But what made Pandit zeroed in on a non-regular player like Jain? “After the time of Harbhajan and Ashwin, we don’t have a proper off-spinner now, and Jain struck me as someone who can play at the highest level, and he needed that backing. So, it made me talk to him, understand his mindset and take him into my confidence,” he noted.
Another thing that piqued Pandit’s interest was Jain’s ability to bowl from around the wicket, something off-spinners tend not to do at any level.
“Saransh is the only bowler, that I have ever seen, bowling round the wicket. I mean, there are no off-spinners I have seen who start the first delivery with a round the wicket. I mean, everybody has a different method of bowling and he has his.
“But Saransh is the only unique bowler that I have found in terms of bowling around the wicket. Recently, I have seen many state level spinners, who have been copying his style,” Pandit detailed.
The former India wicketkeeper-batter also offered an insight into why the tribe of off-spinners is dwindling in domestic cricket after the era of Harbhajan and Ashwin.
“Basically, you can see that after Ashwin and Harbhajan, the multi-format cricketers, probably the spinners, have been lacking in that kind of skills. They keep on playing the white ball cricket more and then the trajectory has been changed and that is one of the reasons.
“If you see Harbhajan and Ashwin and now Saransh, they offer flight, look for turn. So, I feel he is the typical Test match bowler. He always likes to use his variations, and not just push the ball flatter,” he said.
Pandit said Jain has also developed his batting skills over the last couple of seasons, as he felt that it was a prerequisite for an India selection.
“He has been a good batter as he has made runs in local tournaments. Later on, in the first couple of years, I found that he was not putting so much attention to his batting. So, I made him think that he has to develop batting if he wants to play for India.
“He needs to contribute in batting whenever he gets selected for India, which he probably realised. He has taken a lot of initiative in practising his batting as well. His contribution has always helped Madhya Pradesh,” he said.