Kaushik Gandhi Tuti Patriots

I would not be where I am today if it was not for 'Coach' Madanagopal - Kaushik Gandhi, TNPL's most successful batsman over the two seasons

'I did not think that I could even be part of a T20 side but Madanagopal instilled the confidence in me and created a transformational change in me'

Kaushik Gandhi has been the most consistent and the most successful batsman over the two years of the TNPL scoring over 600 runs for Tuti Patriots, a team that reached the final in the both the editions. This year he formed a formidable opening partnership with Washington Sundar and the starts they provided were a prime reason for the record winning streak that they achieved between the end of last season through to the final. 

On the back of his success in the first edition of the TNPL, Kaushik Gandhi amassed close to 800 runs in the 2016-17 Ranji season including scoring his maiden double hundred and has thus cemented his place in the Tamil Nadu team.

However, it has not been a smooth sailing for this 27year old over the last 5-6 years. It was former TN middle order bat J Madanagopal who mentored him during his formative years spending time with him every afternoon at the Vivekananda College ground both on fine tuning his batting technique as well as making him mentally stronger.

And yet, Kaushik Gandhi was in for a huge shock when he was dropped by the then B Kalyanasundaram (Kalli) led TN selection panel after a 80+ knock in Ranji Trophy. It took a while for him to come back into the squad.

And it was 'Head Coach' Madanagopal once again who gave him the big break by picking him in the Tuti Patriots team for the inaugural edition of the TNPL that transformed Kaushik Gandhi’s rather fledgling career.

Kaushik looks back at his association with J Gokulakrishnan (bowling coach of Tuti Patriots) and J Madanagopal (Head Coach, Tuti) with a great amount of emotion ‘It has been a huge bonus as a cricketer having them both, not just in the TNPL but right from my youth days. They have had a tremendous influence on what I am today as a cricketer.’

He  heaps special praise on the role of Madanagopal in his cricketing career over the last decade ‘It was Madanagopal who roped me into his first division team when I was a very young boy. He has been the one who taught me everything connected to cricket right from preparing for a game to executing and applying the learning in 'LIVE' match situations.

Kaushik  says that even he is surprised at his own success in T20 cricket over the last year ‘Before the first edition of the TNPL, I did not think that I could even be part of a T20 side, let alone achieve any success in this format.’

Madanagopal's mentoring role

It was Madanagopal who instilled the confidence in Kaushik that he could be a success story in the T20 format as well. And that has helped him transform into a solid T20 player 'Madanagopal  worked very hard on me to mentally prepare and equip me for the T20 format.' 

Success over the two editions of the TNPL has now given Kaushik the confidence that he ‘belongs’ to this format, in addition to the longer version which he is more naturally inclined towards.

Despite not having the raw muscular power, Kaushik has been able to adjust and play according to the needs of the different formats of the game and achieve success in each of those. Thanks to his innovative Stroke play, his ‘Strong Zones’ and the wide range of shots against both spinners and fast bowlers, he has now got the confidence to match anyone on strike rates in the shorter format of the game.

With the confidence and backing of Madanagopal and the resultant success, Kaushik believes that he has matured quite a lot over the two TNPL stints.

Transformational Changes

Working on a mindset change, mentally preparing hard towards approaching each innings, laying a high premium on his wicket and making the opponents earn his wicket the hard way have been big transformational changes in Kaushik Gandhi that have contributed to his huge success over the last 12months both in the shorter format as well as in the longer version of the game.

While it is the performance on the field that the world at large appreciate, Kaushik sees the dressing room atmosphere as being one of Tuti Patriots biggest strengths 'Even when we were on the verge of exit in the first edition of the TNPL, the dressing room atmosphere was always calm and composed. The entire credit for this goes to the Tuti coaches who played a vital role in keeping our motivation levels high during those critical moments in TNPL 1.'

And this year, even during the continuous winning streak Gokulakrishnan and Madanagopal made sure that 'we treat each game with the same intent and give our best.' That way the entire team was always well grounded and approached each match with the same intensity.

The result is there for all to see!!! 

This is just the beginning of the 'second' innings for Kaushik Gandhi and this one for sure is likely to be a long and successful one. 

 As for Madanagopal, he is now set to return to his umpiring career after the month long 'coaching' stint at the TNPL. He umpired the Ranji Trophy Semi Final this year which seemed to indicate that he was in the top 5-10 umpires of the BCCI but was shockingly overlooked for the entire IPL tournament this year . With yet another successful TNPL and a dream run that unfortunately ended with a loss in the final, Madanagopal is now all set for another new season in Umpiring. It is hoped that by this time next year, he would have had a full stint in the IPL.