Mayank Markande: Young and geared up to break a leg

NEW DELHI: India’s growing affinity for wrist-spin may have seemingly shut the door on Ravindra Jadeja for the moment, but that’s left a big one ajar for Mayank Markande.

It isn’t as if that this is the only reason for the 21-year-old’s inclusion in India’s squad for their two T20Is against Australia. The leg-spinner’s journey since last April — when he started wowing everyone with his skidding googlies during the IPL — does make a case for a Men in Blue jersey.

“It’s a great feeling to get called up for the Indian team. I had so many missed calls and messages when that happened (last Friday), since I was playing in Mysuru,” remarks Markande.

“I’ve learnt a lot over since my time in IPL. Sharing a dressing room with quality players and the likes of Rohit (Sharma) bhai was a great experience. He always backed me to bowl to my strengths, and I did. IPL was a big turning point for me.”

It wasn’t as if the lessons learned during his stint with the Mumbai Indians were left at Wankhede Stadium after the end of what turned out to be the biggest surprise-package outing — a player bought at the base price of Rs 20 lakh delivering 15 wickets can definitely be classified as one — of last IPL.

Those experiences snowballed into a whiff of the actual India experience in Dubai last September during Asia Cup, even if it was from a net-bowler’s perspective. That in turn fuelled what would be a solid maiden Ranji Trophy run (Punjab’s top wicket-taker with 29 dismissals, including two fifers). Soon enough, more rungs were climbed: an ACC Emerging Cup stint last December (where he was again the top wicket-taker with eight scalps), and an India A chance both last and this year (where he again impressed with a fifer in the second unofficial Test against England Lions). One hell of a year, indeed.
“I’ve evolved a lot as a bowler in that time,” observes Markande.

“During my time in Dubai, I had the chance to learn a lot from both Kuldeep (Yadav) and (Yuzvendra) Chahal. Those bits of advice weren’t technical, but they did help me back myself and my variations.

“Even during Ranji Trophy, Yuvi paaji (Yuvraj Singh) was there to guide me. He’d stand at mid-off, pointing out things that helped me take wickets. Then India A happened. Sharing space with such senior players was a big jump in my learning curve. All these experiences have given me a lot of confidence to put more faith in myself and my bowling.”

For a 21-year-old careening towards more stardom in such a short span of time, Markande isn’t letting any kind of complacency percolate into what can only be termed as an unassuming.