Most of the attention in the just-concluded Duleep Trophy final was on the victorious East Zone captain Ishan Kishan, following his match-winning 270 and 80.
It would be fair to say that the left-hander’s exploits in Chennai have certainly brightened his chances of coming back to India’s Test reckoning. But alongside Ishan,
his Jharkhand teammate Kumar Kushagra too is making steady progress.
An India ‘A’ berth isn’t something new to Kushagra, who featured in a couple of games in the tri-series in Sri Lanka in June, scoring 58 and 36 against Afghanistan ‘A’ and Sri Lanka ‘A’, respectively. But his presence in both the multi-day and one-day squads for the upcoming matches against Australia ‘A’ in Pondicherry, beginning on September 22, suggests that the selectors do have their eyes on him.
Kushagra is part of the trio – Devdutt Padikkal and Sai Sudharsan being the others – who feature in both the squads for the Australia ‘A’ games. The 21-year-old’s performance (101 and 46) in a coveted clash like the Duleep Trophy final, where he had to tackle India pacer Mohammed Siraj, is sure to raise his stock.
Precisely, Kushagra has had a steady improvement in the longest version. In last season’s Ranji Trophy, he aggregated 572 runs in eight matches, hitting two centuries and a fifty, averaging 47.66.
“Kushagra has been extra serious about his preparation for the red-ball game over the past one year,” Jharkhand head coach Ratan Kumar, who also coached East Zone in this Duleep Trophy, told The Telegraph on Thursday.
“His weight transfer has improved considerably, something that’s crucial in the red-ball format,” the coach stated.
The other areas Kushagra has worked on are the extension of his hands while playing a shot and the front press, a small trigger movement where a batter shifts his weight slightly onto the front foot just as the bowler releases the ball. “The proper extension of hands keeps his body in balance, while a better front press too is earning him some success against the red ball,” Kushagra’s father Shashikant, also his childhood coach, emphasised.
Kushagra begins his preparation for Australia ‘A’ on Friday, in hometown Jamshedpur.