Last October, Baba Indrajith was shocked when he was not picked for the Tamil Nadu squad for the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament. Dejected, Indrajith called up Mayank Agarwal's long-time coach RX Murali and expressed his desire to improve his white-ball game. A couple of weeks of training with Murali did wonders for Indrajith. He smashed 325 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, including four half-centuries. Tamil Nadu, unfortunately, lost in the final against Himachal Pradesh, but Indrajith had made his statement. A good show at the Vijay Hazare helped him get noticed by the Indian Premier League (IPL) scouts, and he was called up by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a trial. The Kolkata-based franchise picked him for Rs 20 lakh in the IPL mega auction. Thereafter, the 27-year-old has set the Ranji Trophy on fire, scoring three centuries in as many innings. "Missing out on the Syed Mushtaq Ali squad hit me really hard. I started to work even harder. I used that time to equip myself and upgrade my skills. I moved my base to Bengaluru; I spent a good few weeks with RX Murali sir. It was my second stint with him. I have trained with him in the summer of 2021 as well. I worked on my white-ball game, my range of strokes, power-hitting," Indrajith tells Indian Express. "I had a good Vijay Hazare Tournament, and then I went for the KKR trial. Things went well there. They picked me at the auction. I started off well in the Ranji Trophy, and everything started to fall in place. I am just keeping everything very simple," he adds. All the three centuries of Indrajith had come when the team was under pressure. In the first match against Delhi, he scored a counter-attacking 117 off 149, followed it up with a 141-ball 127 against Chhattisgarh, and then a 132-ball 100 against Jharkhand in the ongoing match. "Right from the start of the season, emphasis was on the white-ball cricket. My mindset changed and I play with a lot of freedom now. Maybe, that is the reason why I am getting runs at the faster pace in the Ranji Trophy," he says. Interestingly, Aprajith's first-class average is 52.69, but he has never got the recognition. The three centuries have put the spotlight on him, and he just wants to carry this momentum. "I am averaging more than 50 in the first-class, but you have to score back-to-back centuries to get in the recognition. If Tamil Nadu is doing well in the red ball, constantly reaching the final, that also helps. Everything has to align so that you can get noticed," says Indrajith. It will be the first time Indrajith has bagged an IPL contract. "I have to keep it very, very simple. Before the start of the tournament, I didn't expect things to go this way. I was just focussing on things that I needed to do. And I will do the same thing. My immediate goal is to prepare well for the IPL and try and do well if I get the opportunity there as well. If I do my part well, other things will be taken care of. I am not setting too many goals. I want to do well, wherever I get the opportunity," he says. Brief Scores: Tamil Nadu: 285 & 14 for 2 in 9 overs (Rahul Shukla 2/4) versus Jharkhand: 226 all out in 74.3 overs (Saurabh Tiwary 58, Utkarsh Singh 52; Manimaran Siddharth 4/37)
