Ranji Trophy: On comeback trail, Shivkant Shukla is a hero

The Punjab bowlers had the left-hander’s measure in the morning session. But Shukla held fort. He then went into his shell on reaching the 90s. Then on 99, he survived a close LBW shout off the bowling of Gurkeerat Mann. The 30-year-old trudged along and ended the day unbeaten on 117.

Barely two months back, Shukla was not sure whether he would be playing this Ranji season. Indifferent form and a string of low scores at the top of the order had prompted his exit from the Railways squad two seasons back. That season (2014), he had managed to accrue only 305 runs in nine games at a below-par average of 22.

Consequently, few would have expected him to stage such a rousing comeback after spending two years in the wilderness. Shukla, on his part, harboured no negativity or bitterness over his axing. He was in the probables for the last season, but failed to make the cut.

“Every player wants to prove himself. To be honest, I just did not do enough to make the squad in the last two years even though I was always among the probables. The last season I played, in 2013-14, was also not great. So in a way I am relieved with the score, but not satisfied. We need to do a lot more before relaxing against this Punjab side,” he said at the end of the first day’s play at the Palam Ground.

Bulk of the credit for Shukla’s inclusion in this new-look Railways squad must go to their new coach – JP Yadav. The former all-rounder, who had taken over from Harvinder Singh after their disastrous campaign last year, had backed the inclusion of fresh faces.

While, Shukla has not done anything worthwhile in the two years that he was away from the team, coach JP seemed to have picked him purely on intuition.

Ahead of the season opener against Punjab, JP had posed a pertinent query. “Our batting is an area of concern. We are far too dependent on Mahesh Rawat,” he noted.

Shukla’s timely ton on Thursday would have allayed his fears for the time being. The opener played the sheet anchor’s role to a nicety, and was involved in two robust partnerships. A 57-run stand with Rawat for the fifth wicket was followed by an unbeaten 124 run-partnership with Ashish Yadav for the sixth wicket. Clearly, Shukla had repaid the faith reposed in him by his coach.

Despite the struggles against the Punjab quicks early on, the standout feature in his batting was doggedness and supreme levels of concentration.

These were traits that helped him orchestrate his finest knock in domestic cricket – in the semi-final of the 2008-09 Ranji season, where he batted for 821 minutes to score an unbeaten 178.

That knock took Uttar Pradesh to their third final in four years. It was Shukla’s seminal moment in first-class cricket. That was a long time ago. Poor conversion and inconsistency have troubled him since.

Clearly, time away from the game has helped him regain focus. After staging a remarkable comeback, Shukla is not done yet.

Punjab’s long batting line-up poses an inherent danger for the Karn Sharma-led side. “We have got a decent platform. But we need to build on it as Punjab have a long batting line-up,” Shukla said, his comments showcasing his intent to make it big this Ranji season.

Brief Scores: Railways 257 for 5 in 90 overs.(S Shukla 117 batting, A Yadav 65 batting, M Rawat 35; S Kaul 2/53).