Dubai: It was more of a dream come true for Tamil Nadu’s Narayan Jagadeesan when he was roped in as one of the uncapped players to play for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League 2018.
“I am very excited. To share the dressing room with the likes of [Mahendra Singh] Dhoni and Suresh Raina is something all the more special,” the 23-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman had said.
As Dhoni reaches the dusk of his career, the issue of his replacement as a wicketkeeper-batsman in Team India had been subject to intense speculation with Rishabh Pant now set to step into the big shoes.
The scenario is similar at IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings where the hunt must be on for a dependable replacement for the current captain, who has led them to three IPL trophies under his leadership.
This is when Jagadeesan comes into picture — and the Coimbatore batsman is doing his cause a big favour with an explosive run in the ongoing Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL).
Ambati Rayudu, the Chennai batsman who recently retired from international cricket, believes that Jagadeesan, who got selected by CSK at a base price of Rs2 million (Dh103,413) last year, has potential to become a CSK regular.
“I feel he is extremely talented and he is converting that talent into interesting performances. Hopefully, he will get into CSK [first XI] and play a lot more cricket in Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Having notched the most number of runs in the ongoing edition of the TNPL (361 runs from six games to date) along with becoming the highest run-getter in the history of the league, Jagadeesan has surely caught the eyes of men who matter across the country. He also leads the list for most number of fifties (13) and fours (136) in the tournament.
Rayudu felt the TNPL serves as a great platform for rare talents like Jagadeesan, who aspires to make it to the higher levels, to showcase their talent and abilities in order to grow in the sport.
“When we were growing up, we never had a tournament like this. It is a fast-tracker [to national cricket] and this tournament helps a lot of youngsters from small towns and districts where people always dream about playing cricket at higher levels and I feel it can’t get any better than this,” the former international told the league’s website.
Rayudu signed off by sharing a valuable piece of advice for youngsters in the TNPL aiming to make it big.
“All I would say is learn from the international cricketers. That will be a major takeaway for the youngsters because they know exactly how to play or this sport is supposed to be played. I am sure the young players are doing this. In this sport, every day you learn,” the 33-year-old batsman added.
— The writer is an intern with Gulf News
