When the likes of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Ishan Kishan were making most of the net session at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) International Stadium on the eve of the second T20I between India and West Indies, a boy from the state, far away from everyone’s attention, quietly went on his routine and did the job.
Meet Rajandeep Singh – a right-arm off-break bowler with just 11 T20s and 12 List A games to his tally. While Kishan, , and Sooryavanshi went the balls to the stands with utmost ease, Rajandeep made sure none of the big names hit him at the stands.
Not only the 24-year-old bowled with confidence and discipline, but also beat the Indian batters and drew edges and and force them play some miscued shots. “I got to know what I can do better and what are the crucial things I need to work on,” Rajandeep told PTI in Ranchi.
“I also got the experience of knowing that I can’t bowl too loose. It was a good feeling to bowl today. The batsmen were saying that I was bowling well. Sanju sir was also saying that I was bowling well,” added Rajandeep, who was first mistaken as .
For a cricketer who once made up his mind of quitting the game due to financial difficulties, bowling to keading Indian players was a new motivation to work on and to grow better and upwards.
Rajandeep is another product of Jharkhand’s growing cricket system. He was a part of the Jharkhand side under Ishan Kishan that won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy earlier this year. Against Punjab, he returned impressive figures of 1/30 where the opponents scored 235/6 before Jharkhand chased down the target in just 19 overs to win by six wickets.
He finished the tournament with five wickets from eight matches and also contributed with the bat, scoring 200 runs in seven innings at an average of 40 and a strike rate of over 186. At the Jharkhand Premier League, Rajandeep took eight wickets in eight matches at an economy rate of 9.24.
Rajandeep also grabbed the spotlight at the CK Nayuku Trophy this season, scoring remarkable 400 not out from 387 balls against Meghalaya, an innings that has put him firmly on the radar of IPL scouts. For Rajandeep, the main focus is to do well in matches and trials.
Behind Rajandeep’s little success so far is a harsh reality. A son of a school bus driver father Kulwant Singh and mother Surinder Kaur, Rajandee’s parents found it hard to fund his training. It was in 2016, Rajandeep even came close to quitting cricket, but begged to his parents to give him one more year to prove himself.
“But I told them just give me one year and I went to represent Jharkhand U-16 side and since then I’ve been a regular,” recalled Rajandeep, who had to quit his studies after Class 12 to concentrate fully on cricket. While his family relocated to their native Jalandhar in 2016 after the death of his grandmother and financial struggles, Rajandeep chose to stay in Jharkhand.
His performances have since attracted interest from IPL franchises, with two or three teams calling him for trials. “My family has full support and they want me to excel. There were difficult times, but things have fallen into place. My father still drives a school bus in Jalandhar and things have finally become normal. My full focus is now on cricket,” he added.
A fan of and , Rajandeep’s career took a turn for good with Kishan’s guidance. He stated that Kishan’s advice has helped him understand what it takes to be a genuine all-rounder.
“Ishan bhaiya had a very good team and he shared a lot of his experience with us. We benefited a lot from him,” he said. “He had told me that if you want to be an all-rounder, you have to do well in both departments. He focused on that and did well in the CK Nayudu Trophy.”
