BENGALURU: For someone debuting in a format only about two weeks ago, Rohan Kadam has made quite an impression. Playing seven Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 matches between February 21 and March 2, the Karnataka opener accumulated 340 runs. It is a far cry from his Vijay Hazare Trophy debut in 2017, when the then 22-year-old could manage only 17, which proved to be his only outing in the format since then. Working behind the scenes with coach RX Murali has worked wonders for him. 

Murali one of the well-known coaches in the city, who also happens to be the personal coach of Mayank Agarwal. He has been mentoring Kadam for quite a while. In a chat with Express, he revealed what kind of alterations were needed to correct Kadam's technique. "There were a few technical changes to be made. We worked on his hands, which were quite stiff, got him to relax a bit more and access the ball better. We worked on his power batting, which is helping him. Also, at this level, it is about the mindset, knowing your strengths and how one should play in a particular situation," Murali said.

All that hard work has evidently borne fruit in the domestic T20 competition. Hogging limelight in the batting department, which has players like Agarwal, Karun Nair and Manish Pandey, is an achievement in itself. During the group stage, there was a common theme in his batting displays: attack, which comes naturally to him. His 38 fours and nine sixes at a strike rate of 133.85 is testimony to that. Kadam is not only a clean striker of the ball, but rotates the strike as well.

"I have always concentrated on the basics of the game and trusted my instincts. I just keep things simple and not complicate. My role in the team is to capitalise during the power play and if successful, get more boundaries and further capitalise on that," Kadam said on Tuesday.

The left-hander was born and brought up in Belgaum and moved to the city as a 16-year-old. The attacking batsman had come into the T20 squad after getting some runs under his belt in the DY Patil tournament in Mumbai and the YSR tournament in Bengaluru. In the latter, he even scored a 45-ball ton.

His biggest test will lie in the Super League stage, considering teams such as Vidarbha, Mumbai and Delhi have bowlers who are superior when compared with the ones he faced in the initial games. But the batsman is in no mood to change his approach. "It (league stage) is a confidence booster. It will be challenging in the Super League as all the teams are good, but I am not going to change my approach," Kadam signed off.