Ranji Trophy 2017: University star Kunal Chandela graduates with first-class

Kunal Chandela scored his maiden first-class hundred against Bengal.

THERE’S A sense of innate calm about Kunal Chandela. It comes through in pretty much everything he does. Whether while he’s facing up to a bowler of Mohammed Shami’s calibre for the first time, dealing with Ashoke Dinda’s eccentricities and aggression or speaking about his maiden first-class century. Like the extra bit of time he seems to have on the ball when he’s batting, the 23-year-old is also measured with every word he speaks, even the pauses in between seem perfectly timed.

It’s this Chandela trait that caught the attention of Vijay Sherawat when he first came across the youngster more than half-a-dozen years ago. The boy had just returned home from having spent two years in a boarding school, Indian Public School, at Dehradun-a decision taken by his parents to deal with his “limited interest in academics and incessant interest in khel khood” as he puts it. Though he had played some cricket at school earlier, Chandela had yet to make a serious mark in Delhi’s competitive junior cricket scene.

“The boy was always this cool. He was extremely calm in any scenario. I on the other do lose my cool quite often and there were some matches in particular after which I would get really mad. I would even throw bats around in anger and once or twice even gave him a dhamkhi about asking him to go and never coming back,” says Sherawat, who’s the secretary at Gush Cricket Club, which Chandela has represented over the last six-odd years. “Kunal’s expression would never change and he’d simply reply saying ‘sir agli baar yeh nahi hoga’.”

It’s this patience Sherawat believes that has allowed the right-handed opener to never get too desperate for a breakthrough despite having taken an alternate route to get to the top. It’s a path less trodden these days in Indian cricket, playing university cricket and choosing to not pursue age-group cricket. It’s a decision that the coach insists was taken in accordance with the opener despite the risks involved with it.

“I always told him, age-group cricket wasn’t the only way to reach where you want. Our aim was to get Kunal playing for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy even if it meant him having to wait in the wings for longer because of no age-group cricket credentials,” adds Sherawat. While Chandela buckled down and kept scoring runs in whatever opportunities that came his way, the only time he did try breaking off his chosen path was when he went to Himachal Pradesh for a trial to their under-19 team.

“But there were no regrets about him not making it there. It was just another lesson to him that his journey was just unique,” the coach says. Chandela continued with his academics and is presently pursuing a BSC IT degree at Hembati Nandan Bahugana University in Garhwal. That allowed him a shot at representing his university at the Vizzy Trophy where he started scoring runs in hordes. And it was his performances there, two triple tons in back-to-back matches that brought him into the state selectors’ radar and initially won him a spot in the under-23 team.

The runs continued to flow and the selectors could no longer ignore him for a spot at the top of the order in Delhi’s Ranji team. With three half-centuries and his maiden century on Monday in just four first-class innings, Chandela has of course proven them right a few times over. In Pune, he also perhaps solved a longstanding issue in Delhi cricket, that of finding a stable opening partner for Gautam Gambhir, by putting on the first century stand for the first wicket in over two years.

As impressive as his run of scores has been, what stood out in Pune was his timing, especially against the medium-paced B Amit. In one over, Chandela produced four drives, each as elegant as the other, and he also never looked out of depth or rushed by Shami, even in the middle session when India’s No.1 fast bowler was running in at full tilt.

Sherawat puts it down to the ingenuous preparation drills he and his team would design for their rising star at the club. “He was the only young Delhi batsman getting to face SG Test quality balls in the nets. We would go out of our way to procure them and Kunal would face bowlers with it for nearly an hour-and-a-half every day. It prepared him better than anyone else for the battles ahead. This boy will go the distance,” says Sherawat. These are still early days, but on the basis of how he’s started, Chandela might well be on his way.