A little over five years ago, Milind had announced his arrival on the circuit, when he scored an unbeaten 78 for Delhi against England in a warm-up fixture. (Source: Express photo by Jaipal Singh)

Milind Kumar tonked Rex Singh to the straight boundary and raised his arms aloft. Officials from the Sikkim and Manipur cricket bodies, sitting cheek by jowl inside a makeshift tent at the Cricket Association of Bengal’s Jadavpur University second campus ground stood up and clapped. Sourav Ganguly dropped in at the venue a little later and on being informed about Milind’s double hundred that had 29 fours and two sixes, the former India captain gave a nod of appreciation. “200 in a day, very impressive,” he said.

The Ganguly-helmed Technical Committee of the BCCI decided to incorporate all North-Eastern states in the Ranji Trophy this term. And on their first-class debuts, both Sikkim and Manipur gave a fairly good account of themselves. Batting first, Sikkim finished the day on 299/9, recovering from a perilous 15/5. Milind, their outstation professional, played an innings that he described his “second best”.

A little over five years ago, Milind had announced his arrival on the circuit, when he scored an unbeaten 78 for Delhi against England in a warm-up fixture. Shikhar Dhawan, an ODI also-ran then, had made 110. Dhawan made his Test debut two months later and also went on to become an impact limited-overs player, opening the innings with Rohit Sharma. Milind’s career graph, after his “best” knock, unfortunately headed south. Only 29 first-class matches after making his debut in 2011 attested his travails. “It was amazing, when I played for Delhi. And I still miss it. But things didn’t go my way (there). This year, they kept me as a stand-by. The Sikkim Cricket Association (SCA) called me up and asked if I would like to play for them. I’m really grateful they gave me a chance,” Milind said.

Sikkim initially had been reluctant to hire outstation professionals. “We had some bitter experience of dealing with the outstation professionals. People offering money to play, touts coming into the picture… So we decided against signing up any outstation player. But after the Vijay Hazare Trophy the BCCI insisted that we hire professionals to become competitive. So we brought in Milind, Bipul Sharma and Ishwar Chaudhary,” SCA president Lobzang Tenzing told The Indian Express.

Milind and Sharma shared a 107-run stand for the sixth wicket to initiate recovery. The former was the leading man all along, and one of the most interesting features of his batting was how he doubled up as a ‘batting coach’, guiding his callow, young partners out there in the middle. “It’s more difficult to score runs here. In elite cricket you know there’s a good cricketer next to you. Here, you have to tell the guys about stuff like how to rotate the strike (etc). You have to sort of coach them. You have to take them along with you… But they are a very good bunch of boys, very keen to learn.”

The bespectacled, 27-year-old middle-order batsman had never been to Sikkim even as a tourist. Bereft of grounds and proper infrastructure, Bhubaneswar has become the Sikkim cricket team’s adopted home this term. Manipur, on the other hand, will play their home matches in Bengal.

Milind is yet to know his team mates by their first name. This is another reason why he rates his 202 not out here so highly. It’s a different matter that the selectors might not be too interested in the Plate Group performances.

“I have to score runs and that’s my main goal. I don’t know the criteria (from the selectors’ point of view). I know if I score runs they will probably look. This is my second best innings. The way things have turned out makes me extra motivated,” said Milind.

Brief scores: Sikkim 299/9 in 90 overs (Milind Kumar 202*; S Shaurya 4/39, R Singh 3/65) vs Manipur