How Ranji champs Madhya Pradesh danced to Pandit’s tune
Indian domestic cricket’s super coach delivers a sixth Ranji Trophy title, this time settling unfinished business with his second ‘home team’ with the final win over Mumbai.
“Chandrakant Pandit #GOAT.” The tweet by Abhishek Nayar sums up Chandrakant Pandit’s status in domestic cricket.
On Sunday, he added weight to his already impressive domestic coaching CV when he guided Madhya Pradesh to their maiden Ranji Trophy crown. It was his sixth title in premier domestic competition as a coach. Of the previous five, three came with Mumbai and two with Vidarbha.
The title also healed the wounds from 23 years back when he was MP skipper and they had lost in the final to Karnataka at the same venue—M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru—after being dismissed for 150 chasing 247 for victory. That match turned out to be his last in domestic cricket. That day he left the ground in tears; on Sunday, they were tears of joy.
Watch: MP's legendery coach sheds tears after they win first-ever Ranji title
“Every trophy gives satisfaction but this one is special. I couldn't do it as MP captain years back. All these years, I have always felt I had left something back over here. That's the reason I am a bit more excited and emotional about it,” Pandit said after the match.
Pandit took up the job when MP came calling for his services before the start of the 2020-21 campaign. After all, he was reuniting with the team for which he had played for the last six years of his domestic career. “I knew the culture and when the offer came, I did not hesitate. There were a couple of offers but I chose MP,” said Pandit.
Pandit was given full freedom by the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) as they knew the impact he had made with Rajasthan, Kerala and Vidarbha in different capacities.
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“Chandu bhai knew that our players had skills but the only thing lacking in them was self-confidence. He instilled that self-belief and you can see the results,” MPCA secretary Sanjeev Rao said. “It wasn’t achieved overnight. A lot of hard work and long hours have been put in by Chandu bhai and the players to achieve this result. Since he joined us in 2020, a total of 405 camps have been held. The action has been non-stop. He not only looked at the senior team but also prepared a blue print for all our teams,” he added.
Pandit’s methods are unconventional. They include hard training and come with a ‘no-compromise’ tag. Rao informs that on occasions he asked the players to assemble at the stadium late in the night for training to check their alertness.
MP were camped in Bengaluru from mid-May to acclimatise to the conditions. During that period they played practice matches. As a result, they were ready when the knockouts came around and they beat Punjab by 10 wickets in the quarter-finals. His man-management skills were on full display throughout the tournament. He backed players to bring the best out of them.
Rajat Patidar always had those classy shots but was prone to throw his wicket away. Under Pandit, he ironed out those flaws and the results were seen this season. He finished at their top-scorer with 658 runs from six matches.
Shubham Sharma had a mediocre 2019-20 season, scoring just 67 runs in five innings. In the previous two seasons he had averaged below 40. But Pandit saw a player who puts a price on his wicket and persisted with him. He ended this campaign with 608 runs and four centuries. More importantly, he played 1,316 balls—the most by a MP batter.
It was a demand Pandit had made from his players when Ranji trophy came around—spend time at the wicket.
Yash Dubey and Himanshu Mantri started opening in the last group game against Kerala. Dubey had never opened but both played crucial knocks to bring stability at the top for MP. Dubey scored 614 runs from 10 innings while Mantri finished with 375 runs from seven innings.
Skipper Aditya Shrivastava was struggling to get runs but Pandit believed in his leadership qualities. “The plans and strategies we discussed, he (Shrivastava) was not afraid to implement them on the field. The captain makes the team win 50 per cent of the time and he did a fantastic job even though he wasn't getting runs,” Pandit said of the first-time MP skipper.
Shrivastava wants Pandit to stay on forever. Will the Mumbai stalwart oblige or move on to a fresh challenge remains to be seen.
