For a good part of two days ahead of Kerala’s Group B match against Haryana, the sun has beaten down on the centre square at Lahli. But the rising temperature isn’t expected to change the reputation of the venue where the batsmen are said to struggle. A result-oriented wicket is what Kerala — second on the table with four wins and one loss — need to improve their chances of making it to the knock-outs after a decade. Though, it’s not the kind of surface Jalaj Saxena would have liked to bowl in a Ranji game that could be his last for the season. The off-spinner/opening batsman is the highest wicket-taker this season in Ranji Trophy with 34 scalps. He has repaid the faith the team placed in him when they renewed his contract. So far the switch to Kerala from MP has worked for Saxena. A few more knock out games, a handful of wicktets and a few important knocks might help him to fulfill his dream of playing for India. A recipient of back-to-back Lala Amarnath awards given to India’s best all-rounder, Saxena was disheartened when an India ‘A’ call up eluded him. He was snubbed again when the Rest of India squad for the Irani Trophy was picked. He was hopeful of being rewarded after making 588 runs and taking 49 wickets in 2015-16 — when Madhya Pradesh reached the semifinals after a decade and a half — but Saxena wasn’t on the team-sheets which mattered. Around that time, Kerala was looking to hire professional players and Saxena fitted the bill. “When I left MP for Kerala I had things to prove. The idea was that if I go to a smaller team, which has not qualified for a long time and I can help them reach the knockout stage, then hopefully my performance will have more value. People may take notice and think he was in one team and they played the semi-finals after a long time and then he moved to another team and they played the knockouts too,” says Saxena. Before making the switch, he discussed the move with his elder bother Jatin Saxena, a first-class cricketer, and father Ghanshyam. “My family said that ‘you can play for MP for a long period of time, but your goal is to play for India. If you think you won’t get a chance to play for India after performing with MP then you should do something more’. I was not thinking of shifting to Kerala but when the offer came I started to think about it.” With no experience of playing as a professional, Saxena decided to play in the Dhaka Premier League where he turned out for Rupganj. “All my life I had played for MP. I wanted some experience of playing as a professional where you are expected to perform in every match. So I played in the Dhaka league before heading to Kerala.” Along with young left-arm spinners Sijomon Joseph (13 wickets) and KC Akshay (19 wickets), the 30-year-old has made spin Kerala’s strong suit this season. At Lahli, the onus will be on the fast bowlers to make the most of the conditions, but Saxena believes he can prise out wickets. “I have the ability to make my stock ball turn on any surface, even in Lahli,” he says. “I don’t bowl the doosra. When I get wickets with my off-spin delivery, that is the most beautiful phase. For me experimenting is trajectory, speed, use of crease and changes in the release point of delivery. In one-day cricket I may bowl the carrom ball or the floater but I rely on my stock ball in the longer format.” In addition to picking wickets and scoring runs Saxena is also learning to mentor the spinners in the side to complement the support staff, which includes former India fast bowler Tinu Yohannan, the bowling coach and coach Dav Whatmore. “I talk to the spinners about bowling good balls on the same length but at different speeds and with changes in trajectory. Earlier they would bowl good deliveries but at the same speed and similar trajectory. If you do that the batsman gets used to it. Now they are bowling a good length, but they are varying the speed and varying the trajectory without comprising on the length,” Saxena says. An example of Kerala spinners’ influence this season is the trio taking all 10 wickets in the second innings to bowl out Saurashtra for just 95 and register a 309-run win in the last round. In the first innings too, the spinners reduced Saurashtra’s first innings lead to just seven runs though at one point the visitors were cruising at 107 for 1. Saxena is heartened by the willingness of the team to grind out sessions or as he puts it ‘we have started to play khadoos cricket’, a term commonly used to describe tough as nails cricketers in Mumbai’s maidans. “Kerala is playing fearless cricket and at the same time we are playing khadoos cricket. Like in the first innings against Saurashtra. We decided not to give even one bad ball. We made them earn runs and we kept bowling tight and they struggled. That was khadoos cricket. It was not easy to drive, so we decided that if they drive it is ‘okay’ or if they try to hit over we won’t change our length. But we didn’t allow them to cut, didn’t bowl bad balls.” He also associates khadoos cricket with the batsmen — like when Rohan Prem made a fifty against Jammu and Kashmir when the chips were down or when Sanju Samson has seen off good spells of bowling by being restrained and patient. The last time Saxena was selected for the India A squad, he was still playing for MP. The likes of Deepak Hooda and Baba Aparajit — both in their early 20s — are the kind of players the selectors are looking at to fill the spin-bowling all-rounder’s slot. At the senior level, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, are fixed assets. Saxena, however, is not giving up on his dream of playing for India. “I believe in destiny. If it is meant for me it will happen. There are people who are getting chances even in the current scenario. With so much cricket being played, the cricketers (international) need rest. There are so many formats and so many tournaments. Take for example Parvez Rasool, Jayant Yadhav. They did get an opportunity to play. despite Ashwin and Jadeja.”
