‘Watching Tendulkar on TV’ Chhattisgarh’s Ayush Pandey canes Tamil Nadu attack with maiden Ranji Trophy hundred | Cricket News
It was a dream that was lit on April 2, 2011 at Raipur while watching India lift the ODI world cup at the Wankhede Stadium that is nearly 1,050 km away. Back then, Chhattisgarh was not even part of Ranji Trophy and cricket was just a ‘timepass’ sport. But Shashi Kant Pandey had made up his mind that his son Ayush Pandey would become a cricketer and wear the India jersey just like his favourite Sachin Tendulkar. On Saturday, Ayush would take one of his first giant steps towards realising the dream, scoring his maiden first-class century as Chhattisgarh began the third round of Ranji Trophy fixture on a strong note against Tamil Nadu at the SNR College grounds here.Handed a lifeline Shahrukh Khan, who dropped him at first slip when on 22, Ayush punished TN attack that lacked discipline on a pitch that offered no support for the bowlers. Thanks to his 124, Chhattisgarh ended Day 1 at 293/2 with Anuj Tiwary batting on 68 and Sanjeet Desai on 52.
Ayush’s entry into cricket was primarily because of his father, who would make him watch live cricket on television, especially when Sachin Tendulkar batted. “To be honest, I didn’t like it initially, but I’d no choice,” Ayush says. “Every day he would take me to a garage and bowl underarms. That’s how I started playing. It was my routine until formal coaching began.”
But very soon, watching live cricket on television would turn into video tutorials for Ayush. “Who can coach a kid better than Tendulkar?” asks his father Shashi. “We didn’t have that exposure here. So it was only through television. And whatever Tendulkar used to do on field, I used to make Ayush watch it and learn. From cricket to discipline there was everything to learn and follow,” he says.
And the World Cup win would change everything in Pandey’s household for the good. “It was the night where I decided, let’s keep education aside. I wanted Ayush to give the country the same joy that Tendulkar gave winning the World Cup. A month later when the summer holidays began, he was in a coaching camp. From there on, he has only climbed up,” Shashi says.
In 2022 December, Ayush attended Mumbai Indians trials and in August 2023, went with the franchise to the UK on an exposure trip overseen Zaheer Khan and Mark Boucher. That trip, which followed despite a poor start to his first-class career, would be a career changing one.
“That trip was a big exposure for me. I’d never played on such tracks. That was the first time I knew what moure can do and how much a ball can move,” Ayush says. And as Shashi says, it was also the trip that made him believe he can compete with the rest of the boys from all over the country. “That UK tour changed everything for him. It was not the runs, but the exposure and getting to know what needs to be done,” Shashi says.
In 2022, when Ayush made his Ranji entry, his scores in the first three innings were: 0, 0, 0. After a 20, 13 & 25 in the next three innings, he would be dropped from the Ranji side and would spend the entire 2023/24 season, playing Under-23 tournaments to fixing the holes. Despite relying a lot on boundaries, what also stands out about Ayush batting has been his strong defence, especially off the front foot. Whenever TN bowlers tested him, he would rely on it. But otherwise, would free his arms at will.
It also helped Ayush that only a couple of months back he was in Tamil Nadu playing the Buchi Babu Tournament, even scoring a century in the final. He began this season with 89 & 33 against Delhi, followed it up with 52 against Saurashtra and now scored his maiden century.
“I just wanted to get a hundred. I’d come close, but this time I wanted to convert into three figures. I scored over 800 runs in U-23, so if I can score there, I believe it can be done here as well,” Ayush says.
The last time he attended the MI trials he couldn’t impress upon the five-time champions as his T20 game was still a work in progress. Over the last 12 months, Ayush would go about changing that, and in the Chhattisgarh Cricket Premier League would score at a strike-rate of nearly 200 while opening the batting. Once this round of Ranji Fixtures finishes as rest of his teammates would head home to celebrate Diwali, Ayush has a couple of important dates lined up, as he is set to have trials at MI and Sunrisers Hyderabad. He has already completed trials at Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals.
Last IPL, Chhattisgarh gave India Shashank Singh. And Shashi hopes Ayush time is around the corner. “We are just waiting for the one phone call to reger his name,” he says. But more importantly before all of that Shashi wants to take Ayush for shopping. “From the time we put him in the academy, he hasn’t missed a single session. He has missed so many family functions…but more than all of it, he has gotten so used to whites that he doesn’t like to buy normal clothes. He has grown up now. He should add new collections to his wardrobe,” says the father.
