Abhinav Mukund

Has potential to be a solid India opener

Its been close to 3 decades since the emergence of the last TN bat who made it big on the international scene. Srikkanth, who made his debut in 1981-82, stayed on for a decade and carved a name for himself as the man who created a new approach to playing the first 15 overs of a one dayer.

Over the last 25 years or so, there have been several players from TN who have made it to the Indian team but their stint have all been short lived( for varied reasons). LS, VB, M. Venkatramana, B. Arun, WV Raman (current TN Chief Coach), S. Ramesh, S. Sriram, Hemang Badani, M. Karthik and L. Balaji have played for India but only a few tests/one dayers. Robin Singh did manage to remain on the scene for a few years in the one day circuit.

I am picking a TN cricketer here (Opener again!!) who I believe will play for India, for a long time at that, and will end up as an opener with the best defensive technique after Sunil Gavaskar.

Abhinav Mukund, the 17 year old south paw from Mylapore, Madras doing his first year B. Com at Vivekananda College, recently scored a stunning double hundred and a century in the same test playing for India Under 19 against Sri Lanka.

I first saw Abhinav a decade ago, in 1997, and actually bowled to him on several occasions that year at the Vivekananda College Ground nets. Even at that tender age of 7, I found him very passionate and committed ( he would be at Viveka at sharp 6am even before the ground gate opened). He would bat for half hour under the watchful eyes of CS Umapathy, his first coach and would then pick up the red cherry and turn his arm over with his leg breaks, much like his father, TS. Mukund. And would then leave for Vidya Mandir by 730am. In those early days, Umapathy was the one who taught Abhinav the basics of defence.

His background

Abhinav comes from quite a cricketing family. Father TS Mukund played almost two decades of First Division cricket (He was also in the TN Ranji and Subbiah Pillai squad in the mid 80s) and when he moved into lower division cricket in the late 1990s, he spun every single team he played for, into promotion into a higher division - quite a unique record.

Abhinav’s mother Lakshmi Mukund played cricket for South Zone University. His uncle TS Mohan(played for RBI) is regarded as one of the best coaches, especially on the fielding front. To this day, cricketers dread the prospect of a fielding session under TS Mohan. Another of Abhinav’s uncle, TS Manohar, still plays for Indian Airlines. And his grandfather was a cricketer too!!!

The beginning

The first aspect I noticed even then watching Abhinav bat was his ability to let the ball go, something of a rarity these days. With a solid defence and the patience he displayed, it was no surprise that his father wanted him to become an opener.

Abhinav had been watching cricket from the age of 3 when his father used to take him to the ground for his matches (2 day first division league those days). He had his father for his coach through the early ‘foundation years’ of his cricket. TS Mukund put him through a rigorous daily schedule- waking up at 515am, nets for 90mts in the morning, school and then a couple of hours at the nets in the evening, followed by watching a cricket video (many times the batting of Lara). Much of the dinner discussion also centered around cricket.

Age Group Cricket

In his first ever school match, when he was under 9 years, he batted almost through the 30 overs to score 26 runs. Abhinav has come a long way from there.

A year later, Abhinav scored his first ever century ( for his school in an U10 match). At 12, he scored back to back centuries for TN in the U13 tournament including a knock of 192. In 2004-05, he captained the TN U15 team (he had captained TN U13 team as well) and led them to the South Zone championship. TN finished runner up losing to Delhi in the All India finals.

Even before he had turned 15, he was already representing the state in U15, U17 and U19.

Entry into League Cricket

He began with Division V cricket playing for Harnath in 2001-02. The next year, playing for Egmore Club in the 4th Division, he scored 350 plus runs in the season. He gained instant recognition and Indian Bank chose him to play for them in the 2nd Division in the 2003-04 season at the age of 13. That year he came up with two gems. He scored a century against Bunts, but more importantly Abhinav played one of his best knocks to date on a square turner against SBI that had two experienced off spinners, Kubendran and VijaySarathi- a half century that gave him a lot of confidence to play against top quality off spinners. He scored over 400 runs that season in the 2nd division.

Bad Phase

2005-06 saw him go through a bad phase. Playing for TN state U17, Abhinav failed badly in the first 2 matches(plus one match was washed out). But what was commendable was the way he came out of this phase. Abhinav views his then U17 coach, J. Gokulakrishnan, the former TN Ranji cricketer, as one of his best coaches and credits Gokulakrishnan for bringing him out of the poor rut he had got into.

The season saw a damp start with preparations being hampered by heavy rains, so much so that they had to practice indoors. With spinners coming on earlier than usual, Abhinav found it difficult to come to terms with the turning ball and fell continuously for low scores.

When asked what he did to get Abhinav back on track, Gokulakrishnan recounts those few days, with a great deal of pride, “ It was a very difficult tour for all the boys. The pitch turned square. We had very little practice outside, in the sun. With Abhinav, it was a question of an adjustment to his technique and the way he played the turning ball. I asked him to get into the line of the ball, to wait till the last moment to play and also to apply himself to the task. I said the same thing to all the boys but it was amazing to see how Abhinav transformed himself so quickly.”

Gokulakrishnan goes on, “His 160 against Goa showed how quick a learner he was. He grasped the finer points of what I said. More importantly, it was very clear that he wanted to come out of that low phase. And he did it in style.”

“As a coach, it also gave me a great deal of satisfaction that a young kid could grasp the deficiencies so quickly and turn around as fast as he did. He showed maturity far beyond his age.”

NCA(National Cricket Academy)

He was inducted into the NCA in May 2004 and has been at the NCA every year since, so much so that he is now said to be a veteran at the NCA. At the NCA, he has improved his game under the watchful eyes of Bhaskar Pillai (the unlucky Delhiite who plundered runs in the 1980s) and Parthasarathy Sharma. The video analysis and personalized feedback at the NCA has helped Abhinav immensely in correcting any technical faults. Very interestingly, Abhinav also stopped eating Appalams completely after feedback from the NCA( He used to have 5-6 a day previously).

Century in 1st Division at 16

At the age of 16, he scored a century in first division league against a top notch Jolly Rovers attack comprising of L. Balaji, Tinu Yohanan and Jesuraj. He followed that up with three 80 plus knocks in successive matches against MRF, India Pistons and India Cements. He scored over 400 runs that season( he had not played the full season because of U17/U19 commitments). Also, in 2006-07, he got a double hundred in all India U17 tourney.

His first (formal) overseas tour

In July this year, he went on his first official overseas tour (his father had earlier taken him to England to play a few matches for Kent minor county), to SriLanka, as part of the India U19 team. After low scores in the initial phase of the tour, Abhinav Mukund put up a sterling performance in the 2nd test with a double century and a century in the same test. These two knocks earned him many words of appreciation from the team’s coach Lalchand Rajput (read the exclusive interview with him), who helped him a great deal on the tour to face the moving Kookubara ball. This spectacular performance immediately earned him a place in the TN team for the Buchi Babu tournament in August and for the Moin-ud-Dowla tourney in Hyderabad.

Key Milestones

1999-2000 - First century when he was not yet 10

Oct 2002 - Back to Back centuries for TN in U13 tournament

2002-03 - Over 350 runs in IV Division league for Egmore Club

2003-04 - Century against Bunts in the 2nd division(13 years)

May 2004 - Inducted into the NCA

2004-05 - Captained TN U15 to South Zone championship, finished runner up in national U15 losing to Delhi in the finals

2006-07 - Century against a strong Jolly Rovers attack in first division league

2006-07 - Double hundred against Tripura in U17

2006-07 - MRF signed a contract with him for his cricket gear

July 07 - Double century and a hundred in the U19 test against SL

Aug07 - Selected in the TN Buchi Babu team, scored 92 against Assam

Abhinav’s Education

While he has had good amount of success on the field, he has not de-focused on his education. He secured around 90% in Class X and around 85% in Class XII. That’s exceptional for a boy, who has been at one ground or the other most of the time in the last 3 years and had an attendance of around 15% in class XII. Credit for this should go entirely to his mother Lakshmi who used to write notes for him and get him up to speed, when he came back from matches. Vivekananda College had already booked him (to join) even while he was just 15 years (yes, 2 years ahead of time).

StrengthsHas one of the best defences (for his age)
Mentally very strong, determined and a positive ‘want to succeed’ attitude
Consistent scores over the last 4 years – U13 -U15 -U17 and now U 19
A good thinker of the game
Strong onside player, very strong of the back foot- has a good cut and pull

Areas of concern

In 7- 8 years of cricket, he has not seen too many lows - will be interesting to see how he tackles failures
His technique against the moving ball will be tested at higher levels- to strengthen ‘front of the wicket’ game Focus on bowling could be a distraction

(Several former Ranji cricketers I spoke to, think that his bowling could be a value add. This writer believes that Abhinav should focus on being a ‘great opener’ than a batsman who can also be a utility bowler. The best of opening batsmen have all been pure play openers. And being a leg spinner, he will require that much more practice in the nets. It may be a sacrifice he may have to make, but may be worth considering)

What he must guard himself fromOver dose of matches currently - so could be stressed out if he doesn’t relax

Advice on ‘technique’ from different players

The Future- What’s in StoreAt 17, Abhinav’s eyes are now set on his Ranji debut. If all goes well, he should make his debut this season (read TN selector interview) and should be batting alongside Anirudh Srikkanth before the end of the season(Anirudh incidentally has had a brilliant start to the league season, amassing over 500 runs in the first round of matches and has been in form in Moin-ud-Dowla as well). Another big opportunity for Abhinav this season could be the under 19 World Cup (in February 2008).

ConclusionThe last time I was excited about a young TN cricketer, with an aggressive attitude to succeed, was 20 years ago, when I watched S. Sriram (he was about 10-11 years then) bowl tirelessly at the TSR YMCA nets. One thing that worried me even then about Sriram was his interest to also focus on batting. In the end, he turned into a batsman in the 1990s and lost his once beautiful flight, arc and turn.

Abhinav has brought to me the same excitement as Sriram did 2 decades ago. So far, the road has been smooth for Abhinav with TNCA providing him all the opportunities to establish himself at the junior level. More importantly, Abhinav has remained focused and has not been carried away by the early successes he has had (at U13/U15 and U 17 levels). With over 50 centuries already under his belt, I believe Abhinav, at 17, is now all set to make the jump into the next higher level- Ranji Cricket.

One of the big issues with TN cricket has been not providing opportunities at the right time to budding cricketers, thus delaying their entry into top notch cricket. Luckily for Abhinav, he has had it his way in the last 3- 4 years and has had a smooth sailing thus far in all grades of cricket. Abhinav must also count himself lucky that, at a time when he is looking to break through into the Ranji squad, he has two southpaws as selectors this year, WV Raman (he is also the coach) and R. Madhavan, both of whom are ideally suited to guide him through his next phase in his cricketing career.

It will do his confidence a great deal of good if the TN officials talk to him and inform him of their plans for him (of course subject to him scoring the necessary runs). That will help him not become too eager and anxious of his impending selection in the TN state team.

Having graduated in flying colours in age group cricket, Abhinav has it in him to scale through Ranji and Duleep in the next couple of years to put himself in contention for national honours. Unless something dramatically goes wrong,(and I don’t see that possibility as he has all the basics right, both technically and mentally), I see Abhinav being an integral part of the Indian team into the next decade.

Abhinav could end up as one, with the best defensive technique for India against the new ball after Sunil Gavaskar. A shrewd thinker, I also see Abhinav captaining Tamil Nadu for many years.

Where do I see him

2007-08- Debut in Ranji Trophy

2008-09- Entry into Duleep Trophy and Irani Trophy

2009-10- In the Indian team

2010-11- Cementing his place in the Indian team