An emotional Chandrakant Pandit walked out in the middle and acknowledged the crowd at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium. The spectators were celebrating Madhya Pradesh’s maiden Ranji Trophy title, the players were emotional but this win meant a lot to coach Pandit.
This wasn’t the first time that he was winning a Ranji Trophy title as a coach. But this was the same ground some 23 years back where Madhya Pradesh led by Pandit had suffered a defeat in the final of the Ranji Trophy against Karnataka
What captain Chandrakant Pandit couldn’t do, coach did. He made a unit see a dream and achieve it.
To know more about his role in MP’s emphatic performance in this season of India’s most prestigious tournament, we had a chat with spinner Kumar Kartikeya who talked about how coach Pandit instilled self-belief in the side. Excerpts:
Q. How are you feeling after lifting the trophy?
A. It’s a great feeling to lift the cup. We can’t express it in words. But at the same time, we are also focusing on the future now. We want to be consistent in the coming tournaments.
Q. Talk to us about the role of coach Chandrakant Pandit.
A. All the credit goes to him for whatever we have achieved. He has the experience of being in the final as he has played them in numbers, both as a player and as coach. It took us a bit of time to get into the groove and understand how he goes about the business.
But, eventually we all understood the process. In fact, after he took over as the coach, a couple of our players have played for India and have been doing pretty well at the IPL level as well.
Q. There are a lot players coming from Madhya Pradesh who are playing for India and also doing well in IPL. Talk to us about the recognition that the guys are getting.
A. The players used to perform earlier as well but the problem was that we were not winning. But as we have started winning, the side and the players are getting that recognition. People have started recognising us.
Q. What was the chat before the final?
A. We were not under any kind of pressure. Our only plan was to put all the efforts in playing good cricket. The Mumbai team is surely a big one but if you look at the line-up, they only had two players, Prithvi Shaw and Dhawal Kulkarni who had played a final before. So, they too had a very young side. Sticking to basics was our only plan.
Q. Tell us about the pitch at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium.
A. Honestly, there was nothing much for the bowlers on this track. It was a batting pitch. It was just keeping low in the later stage of the game.
Q. You have been a part of Mumbai Indians franchise recently. What learnings did you get from the big guns?
A. I got to learn a lot while being a part of the Mumbai Indians unit. Firstly, it was Sachin sir who told me that I have the ability and talent and it’s only about focusing on the process. He asked me to just concentrate on my skill set and other things will follow.
Rohit bhaiya has a very good nature. In fact, every player needs a captain like him. He is someone who backs the bowlers and if a skipper supports a bowler, it’s really helpful.
Q. Was there any pressure while playing the IPL?
A. Actually, I had no pressure on me because I didn’t really think that I would be making my debut this time. My initial aim was to learn as much as I can. So, when I got the chance to play in the XI, I didn’t really feel any kind of pressure.
Q. You have got a lot of variations in your bowling. How did you develop that?
A. I had one thing in mind that if I have to perform at a bigger stage, I need to have something different in my bowling arsenal. It was then I started working on these variations. I really did a lot of hard work to bowl the variations with the same action.
I started practicing to bowl with the same grip and only focused on changing the release point. After I was able to do that, I developed googly, carom, flipper and etc.
Actually, I started bowling leg spin as well to negotiate the left-arm batters.
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