As the shadows lengthened at the SNR College Grounds, screams of ‘Yes, Come on’ from Pradosh Ranjan Paul echoed around. It didn’t sound like a cry of relief or neither did it have a jubilant tone to it. It was filled with anger, as he had a century of note to show after a while. Last week, he had scored an unbeaten 201 against Nagaland, but this 113 against defending champions Vidarbha was worth more than that for him. Courtesy his second successive century and Baba Indrajith’s unbeaten 94, Tamil Nadu ended Day 1 at 252/4.
The OG prodigy, Pradosh has been a prolific scorer in age-group levels, one who always seemed to be cut from a different cloth and destined for bigger things thanks to his ability to score centuries regularly. A very compact technique that allows him to be a dominant enforcer, and between December 2023 to January 2024, he was part of India A side on the back of scoring three centuries in his first full Ranji season in 2022/23. Batting at No 3 at Potchefstroom for India A against South Africa, he had 163 off 209 deliveries to show before he scored 0 & 43 against England Lions.
It seemed as if everything was falling in place for Pradosh before the blinds came down. With one eye on India A and beyond, he went chasing results that weren’t in his control. “Honestly, that played in my mind,” Pradosh said. “After representing India and then I came back and I wasn’t there in the Duleep Trophy. So, that definitely played in my mind. So I went back to the drawing board to see what took me to that level. Obviously, those big hundreds were missing for two years,” he added.
Last Ranji season he had just one century to show and in the lead up to the current edition, in the Chennai First Division and Buchi Babu had a string of half-century scores but the three-figure mark was still missing. Instead of looking to dominate, he began to grind, facing 160-180 deliveries to get rid of the bad habit that had crept in. “To be frank, I wasn’t at my best mindset last season when I came into the Ranji Trophy. I was a bit scratchy and I was thinking a lot about the result. I was not at my best when it came to the mindset. I was having a lot of expectations or I was a lot result oriented. In age-group levels, I never did that. So, this year coming into the Ranji Trophy, I told the batting coach (Tanveer Jabbar) that if at all I get set, I will make it big,” he said.
On Saturday, his innings against Vidarbha was largely on the same note and it couldn’t have come at a more important time as he batted over 250 deliveries for the first time. With B Sai Sudharsan and N Jagadeesan away, their inexperience at the top showed once again as Vidarbha attack reduced TN to 18/2 by the ninth over. Like the opening match against Jharkhand before Diwali, Pradosh was in the middle in the first over after Vimal Khumar was caught down the leg-side. Pradosh got going with a crisply timed flick that raced to the boundary – a shot that he frequented through the day, picking up seven such fours off the pads as Vidarbha seamers bowled to his strengths.
For a batsman who is strong off the square on off-side, he showed great restraint not to play a single shot after finding out the pitch was two-paced. The cover-drive, another bread and butter shot of his, was chunked. It meant, unless the Vidarbha attack bowled in the line of stumps, he seldom looked to attack them.
His first boundary, a crisply timed flick ended up being the theme of his knock. It was a shot that would fetch him seven of his 13 boundaries as whenever Vidarbha tried to make him play by bowling the stump line or erred down the leg-side, he would bring his wrists to good work. But between those 13 boundaries, it was a long grind for the left-handed batsman. His fifty came off 117 deliveries and despite looking assured in the middle, and two left-arm spinners operating he never went aerial looking to assert his command. That he showed restraint even when he was unable to rotate the strike, in particular when Indrajith was in full-flow, was commendable. But it is also an area he should work on as the bowlers can tie up at one end and deter the fluency of the other batsmen. The left-right duo stitched 179-run stand for the third wicket off 343 deliveries, with Indrajith being the dominant partner, scoring 94 to Pradosh’s 78 off 200. Having taken 117 for his fifty, he took 130 more to add another fifty as the century came off 247 deliveries.
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For a batsman who made headlines in age-group for showing his attacking style, since moving to No 3 he has removed flamboyance from his game. “Earlier, yeah, I used to think a lot about boundaries, you know, to be more aggressive or dominative in the pitch. But recently, my focus is all about this, you know, just picking the ball from the hand and trying to be in a good position. A No. 3, a batsman has to give solidity to the team and that’s what I will look to do through the tournament,” he added.
Brief scores: Tamil Nadu 252/4 (Pradosh Ranjan Paul 113, Baba Indrajith 94 batting) vs Vidarbha.
