Baba Indrajith, who finished Tamil Nadu’s standout batter in the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2022, revealed an inspiring compliment from fellow statesman and India international Ravichandran Ashwin.
The 27-year-old has quietly established himself as one of domestic cricket’s consistent performers in recent years and extended his run in the first round of the Ranji Trophy 2021-22 for Tamil Nadu. The right-hander scored 100 and 52 in the side’s Elite Group H opening fixture against Jharkhand, which they lost by two wickets.
He followed that up with two more hundreds in the next two drawn clashes against Chhattisgarh and Delhi, respectively, finishing Tamil Nadu’s highest run-scorer of the season with 296 runs at 76.74.
Indrajit, the elder twin brother to India’s U19 World Cup 2021 winner Baba Aparajith, also earned his IPL debut at the Kolkata Knight Riders during the recently concluded edition.
He couldn’t quite make a mark, returning with scores of 6, 15 and 0 in an unsettled top-order, but has already earned accolades on the back of his stellar first-class numbers – 3,788 runs at 53.35 with 12 hundreds.
Indrajith revealed how Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s premier Test spinner, complimented him for his success, remarking that a Test cap isn’t far away.
“I’ve known him for a very long time, we’ve played league cricket together, Ranji Trophy together, so whenever I do well he messages me saying, ‘You have a spot in the Test XI, for some people it takes time so keep working hard your time will definitely come.’ – that kind of compliment means a lot to me,”
“Look, when you get a compliment from Ravichandran Ashwin, who’s a legend of the game and one of the best all-rounders to have ever played, it feels good. I sometimes feel like, ‘OK, he sees something in me,’ so that gives me the confidence. He’s been doing this for a very long time.”
he told Sportskeeda in an interview.