Hemchudeshan
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
For a young spinner, being a pivotal part of his domestic team’s milestone title-winning campaign is a measure of where he can be.
With 47 wickets from 15 innings at an average of 15.23 in the recently-concluded BCCI u-19 Cooch Behar Trophy, Tamil Nadu off-spinner J. Hemchudeshan shows immense promise.
He’d been an indispensable asset with a wicket per 35 balls (strike rate 34.89) at a miser-tight economy of 2.61 in Tamil Nadu’s title win after a long gap of 33 years.
In a phone interview on Tuesday, he said that playing his first two matches at home and picking up 18 wickets helped him gain momentum. He had match hauls of eight for 55 and 10 for 89 against Goa and Chhattisgarh in Theni.
“I just rode the momentum till the end. We played five home matches (four in Theni, one in Dindigul). I performed particularly well in those matches, picking up many wickets in Theni,” said the 16-year-old.
He had three five-wicket hauls, but his most memorable is the one versus Maharashtra (five for 46) in the semifinal, which Tamil Nadu won by eight wickets in Pune. Four of his five wickets came on the second day.
“They were 260 for five on the first day. The next day, I was able to bowl them out quickly for 300 (306).”
Hemchudeshan, who said he likes red-ball cricket, added that he focuses on bowling at the stumps and can bowl at least 20-30 overs per innings.
He’s inspired by R. Ashwin and Nathan Lyon. He imitated Ashwin’s bowling action when he was younger and even bowls the carrom ball, which he has picked up from watching him bowl.
“I picked it up from him and then trained with my coach to have it as my variation,” he said.
Being a bowling all-rounder, he said he’s going to register for the upcoming Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL) auction.
“I want to play the Ranji Trophy and for India u-19,” he added.
Published – January 22, 2025 06:18 pm IST
