By Venkata Krishna B
Last Tuesday as the news filtered in that Chennai Super Kings had decided to release N Jagadeesan was on his way to the second of his five hundreds. On Monday, he would slam 277 against Arunachal Pradesh in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy in Bengaluru but he remembers that second hundred (168) against Goa just after the CSK news.
A special message slid down his WhatsApp. It was from the Australian and CSK veteran Mike Hussey. “He sent a lovely congratulatory message and asked me to keep going. Hopefully, there is more in store,” Jagadeesan tells The Indian Express.
The CSK jolt had woken him up, he says. “You do start thinking about it. But it was good in a way to be honest as it gave me a new perception as to where I should improve my game. I was actually very happy about how I handled it,” he says.
Jagadeesan started with 114 against Andhra and followed it up with 107 vs Chhattisgarh, 168 vs Goa, 128 vs Haryana before making a headline-making 277 against Arunachal Pradesh on Monday to surpass Kumar Sangakkara, Alviro Petersen, Devdutt Padikkal. En route, he combined with Sai Sudarshan to stitch 416 runs for the first wicket (another world record).
To say no batter has come close to frustrating the selectors and the Tamil Nadu team management in recent times would be an understatement.
From being touted as the next big thing, in Chennai’s league cricket circles, Jagadeesan was now being referred to as the “second innings batter.” It was a dig at his habit of making runs when the outcome of the match was more or less decided.
The only other time Jagadeesan trended on social media, prior to his accomplishments on Monday, was back in June. In a TNPL fixture, after being run-out at the non-striker’s end for backing-up far, he showed his middle-finger to state team-mate Baba Aparajith.
And as he endured another disappointing Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 outing where he tallied only 118 runs in six innings, Chennai Super Kings released him back into the auction pool earlier this week. One-by-one the doors were being shut on a talented player and the last one by CSK, must have been especially hurting as he represents Vijay CC, a First Division team owned by India Cements under whose umbrella CSK is part of.
“Over the moon and relieved,” is how AG Guruswamy, Jagadeesan’s coach, feels just minutes after his ward wrote his name into history books. The 70-year-old has been coaching Jagadeesan at the SNR College Grounds ever since he was an eight-year-old.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time… not the five hundreds or world record, but just to see him score again. He was under pressure before he left and if he had failed in the opening game, he may have been dropped. But he has made the opportunity count,” the coach told this newspaper.
Before the tournament began, Jagadeesan dashed off to Coimbatore to cut all the noise. With a strong family support – his father Rajan Narayanan has even prepared a wicket on the terrace of one of their properties – Jagadeesan would slowly regain the confidence back.
And Guruswamy would suggest one most important thing. “The boy has always had a good work ethic. But it looked like too many cooks had spoiled him. So it was hard to find where he was going wrong. But when we dug deeper, we found that he was looking to improve his T20 strike-rate (118.61) to 150 and above. Now, that is not his game. So we told him to forget about that for the time being and look to get back to runs,” Guruswamy added.
“The T20 influence was there to see. He was taking power-hitting training and it is bound to have affected other aspects of the game. So before the tournament, all that he did was to play the defensive shots and play as close to the body. That is a non-negotiable for an opener. It was all about getting the basics right… I know it is a cliché, but it is what it is,” Guruswamy says.
When he boarded the flight to Bengaluru for the Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign, everyone including the opener knew that he was on borrowed time as the selectors were sharpening the axe.
“Actually, I wasn’t thinking of anything. All I wanted was to stay in the present and follow my routine and go back to the basics,” Jagadeesan says. “To be honest, expectations have always been there and I have always seen it as a good thing because it shows people see something special in me. I’ve been working on my game for years and I knew I would eventually turn around,” he said.
While runs did dry up, there was also another reason why the Tamil Nadu selectors persisted with the opener. One of the fittest in the squad, according to the team management Jagadeesan’s work ethics have been second to none. There have been days where has featured in First Division cricket in the day and attended IPL training sessions in the evening.
And having seen the fitness parameters, during the middle of the recent IPL, Jagadeesan even converted into a non-vegetarian as he didn’t want to miss out on anything extra. It is something that came totally out of the blue for his parents, and while they agreed to it, it came with a condition. “We never stopped him. If it is going to improve his fitness, then why not. The only condition from his Amma was, he shouldn’t eat non-veg at home.”
It isn’t an easy ask by any means to try meat, something Jagadeesan hasn’t been fond of since childhood. “I just depends on how you think about it. When I started, I felt it was going to make me better and obviously when I’m in that sort of mindset, it is going to be easy to adapt. You have to keep learning new things to make you better and food, diet is just another aspect,” Jagadeesan says.
Season after season, there have been instances where there have been lopsided contests. (F 
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