Angkrish Raghuvanshi is just 19 years of age but has a cool head above his shoulders that augurs well for his future cricketing prospects.
The Delhi-born batter, who was playing his second First Class match for Mumbai, showed ample evidence of his temperament in the 92 runs that he scored for Mumbai against Odisha in their Ranji Trophy Elite Group A clash.
With 13 fours and three sixes, Angkrish was in his element putting the Odisha bowlers to the sword and was elated with his effort.
“Obviously, feeling good to have contributed for the team. Not too many nerves going in as I practised hard. I just wanted to do what I wanted to do to help the team.”
The Kolkata Knight Riders player did miss out on a hundred trying to play a square cut that didn’t come off and vowed to work on that.
“I was not thinking too much about the score, just wanted to keep batting the way I wanted to I was batting. I played a bad shot, I’ll try not to do it the next time. But the team is in a good position, I’m happy for it.”
Angkrish also was happy sharing time in the middle with the experienced Shreyas Iyer.
“Obviously, its great playing with all those guys and got to learn a lot from how they play and behave, their work ethics and all. Hopefully, I can also become like that one day.”
Talking about his approach for the season ahead, Angkrish said he’s looking to contribute to the team.
“For me whichever team I play for is to help the team win. That’s my thought here also.”
Angkrish is one of the few players who got an opportunity to feature in the IPL before playing Ranji Trophy.
“Even there to face the best bowlers in India and to play with the best players, it was a great learning opportunity. I felt I came back a better player than I was going in there. Hopefully, I can keep improving. “
The Mumbai batter enjoys a special relationship with current India assistant coach Abhishek Nayar and spoke about Nayar’s influence on his game and life.
“We have a special relationship. He has helped me a lot, cricket wise and outside cricket also. I go to him with most of my problems. When I do well, I go to him with my problems and even when I’m not doing well I go to him with problems. He helps me a lot. Everything about my batting. How to play the swinging ball, he’s taught me how to play pace and how to play spin. How I can be tactically strong against good bowlers. Lot of learning..”
Angkrish also elaborated on the tactical aspects he has acquired from Nayar.
“During practice, he tells me to train hard. Keep pressure on myself. So that when I go into the match situations it become easy. He tells me where to stand and what guard to take against certain bowlers. So obviously it helps during different matches and it helped today as well.”
Nayar had a unique method to work on Angkrish’s fitness during his early days.
“When I was younger, to work on my fitness, Abhishek sir made me run 30 floors on the stairs in a certain time. Just take the lift and go to ground floor and then run above 30 floors in a certain time,’’ he added.
