The story of Ashish Kumar and Jatin Kumar Pandey is about the passing of the baton. The 36-year-old Ashish played for Jharkhand for over a decade before he called it a day after the team beat Tamil Nadu in the last Ranji Trophy season in Jamshedpur. And 10 months later, Jatin – the reason why Ashish announced his retirement – ran through Tamil Nadu in the opening round of the Ranji Trophy fixture to pick up a five-fer on debut as Jharkhand closed in on an innings win at the end of the third day’s play in Coimbatore.
The 21-year-old Jatin hails from Lohardaga district in Jharkhand known for bauxite and mining. Before taking up cricket professionally, he was a state-level champion in swimming. But Jatin chose red-ball cricket, the primary reason being Ashish, who also happened to be his neighbour. “I didn’t know he wanted to emulate me,” Ashish tells The Indian Express. “I knew him from the time he was a kid and by the time he was 16-17, he used to come along to the sports complex where I used to train and follow what I was doing. Since he was playing tennis ball cricket, I didn’t think much about it. But when I saw him bowl with the pace in tennis ball cricket, I told him to take cricket seriously,” Ashish adds.
It was not pace alone that got Ashish’s attention. With a tall, upright action, Jatin had a natural in-swing, and with his height had all the qualities to be a fast-bowler. And off the field as well, had the discipline to put in the hard yards where he would resume training at 6.30am after a session of yoga first up in the morning. “He is built for a fast-bowler. Even without much exposure, he is particular with his diet and discipline. There are not many options here in Lohardaga, so if you need to climb the ladder, you have to be hungry for success. He has plenty of it. All that I do is just oversee his preparation by ensuring he stays consistent on the field,” Ashish adds.
The consistency that Ashish mentions is more about the line and the length he operates. It was evident right through the game here, where he kept testing the Tamil Nadu batsmen in the channel outside off-stump and removed N Jagadeesan, Baba Indrajith and Andre Siddarth towards end of Day 2 and took the wickets of J Hemchudeshan and Gurjapneet Singh to complete a five-fer (14.4-4-35-5). “He does a lot of spot bowling. Since he gets the swing naturally, we just look to hit the right areas regularly and that’s been his strength. Even when he made the Cooch Behar debut, he picked up five wickets and he has repeated it now,” Ashish says.
Jatin had even been part of national camps, but somewhere during his childhood, Ashish, his neighbour, had become his inspiration of sorts. For Jatin, fast bowling wasn’t just restricted to Ashish ‘bhaiya’, but there was more to it. “I picked up fast bowling by looking at Ashish bhaiya,” Jatin says. “Everything about fast bowling was good – you get to run fast from far and then bowl quick and scare the batter. And then I watched a lot of Dale Steyn videos,” he adds.
While he still doesn’t have that lethal out-swinger that Steyn had in his armoury, Jatin has managed to get the ball to go straight and hold its line in the recent months. Prior to the Ranji season, with relentless rains in Ranchi, he had been with the Jharkhand team in camps in Kalyani, Kolkata, Vadodara and even featured in practice matches at Uttarakhand. It is how he caught the eye of the senior side. “I’d done well in the last couple of months, so I knew what I had to do exactly. I came here to play the Buchi Babu Tournament as well. So conditions wise, it wasn’t different for me,” Jatin says.
Ashish too had seen it coming. Having played for a decade, he knew he was in the twilight of his career and with Jatin coming along, Ashish says it was an easy decision to make. “I could have carried on for two more seasons. But I wasn’t going anywhere, so I thought why not coach the next in line because I was anyway mentoring Jatin for a few years. Since he did well in Under-19 and U-23 levels, I thought it is only fair he takes my place in the team.Now as a coach, I only had to help him get better. And I also know, he won’t stop here. He will take the red ball for India as well,” Ashish says.
Story continues below this ad
Having reduced Tamil Nadu to 18/5 at stumps on day 2 in response to Jharkhand’s 419, Jatin and Sahil Raj ensured the hosts were bundled for 93. With 326 runs lead in the bank and rain proving to be a factor, Jharkhand had no hesitation to enforce follow-on. With their bowlers getting adequate rest and despite TN batsmen showing some resistance, they picked up three wickets in the second essay as the hosts were 52/3 at stumps on Day 3.
Brief scores: Jharkhand 419 vs Tamil Nadu 93 (RS Ambrish 28; Jatin Pandey 5/35, Sahil Raj 4/21) & 52/3.
