Saransh Jain Reveals Consistency Behind India Test Squad Selection
Saransh Jain, one of the newest members of the Indian Test team, has been selected for the upcoming tour to Sri Lanka. His years of hard effort in first-class cricket have earned him the chance to play as an off-spin bowling all-rounder.
In a recent chat, Saransh explained how his journey began when he was a little child, visiting a cricket club with his father, Subodh Jain, a former Ranji player, and his older brother.
Later, Saransh made his Ranji Trophy debut by picking a fifer against a tough Tamil Nadu team. Saransh says he learned to play the game with discipline over time. He used to go to the club with his father and older brother.
My brother was playing with a leather ball, but I was too little to join in, so I just hung out with a tennis ball. As I grew older, I began playing with the leather ball at all age groups.
In 2014-15, I made my Ranji debut and took five wickets in my first game against Tamil Nadu, a team that included senior players such as Dinesh Karthik. Saransh realised that hard work and discipline are key to success in cricket.
She emphasised the need of focusing on things she could control in order to advance to a higher level. I kept doing it, and now I’m here representing India.
Since my age-group days, my major weapon has been consistency, the ability to hit the same location repeatedly because the batsman would eventually take a chance to score. I’m not worrying about how the surfaces will react in Sri Lanka or how many wickets I’ll take; I simply want to stick to my basics,” he said.
Saransh also spoke about his childhood cricket heroes and life in general.
He credits his father Subodh with helping him achieve his dream of playing cricket. In addition to his family, he sees Ravichandran Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh as off-spin instructors. He also shared a story about how Harbhajan guided him while he was attending a camp at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.
My father, a former Ranji player, is the reason I began playing cricket. He is my biggest inspiration, and I play cricket for him. In terms of bowling, I admire Ravichandran Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh.
Even though I haven’t had many talks with them, simply watching their bowling videos has taught me a lot. Harbhajan Singh taught me a lot during our week-long session at the Centre of Excellence.
They claimed I already had a lot of match experience and didn’t need to make any major skill modifications. However, he gave me some wisdom that has stuck with me:
“You don’t have to lose something in order to gain something.” “You have to put in the work.” That remained with me, and I still find incredible resonance in those words whenever I push myself to work hard.
