My only aim is to win matches: Angkrish
Mumbai and Kolkata Knight Riders’ batter Angkrish Raghuvanshi says he judges his performances with how his team fares while he keeps working on multiplying his skills as a top order-batter and wicketkeeper.
In a team which has New Zealand’s Tim Seifert and uncapped Indian Tejasvi Dahiya as specialist wicketkeepers, Raghuvanshi’s skills behind the wickets could be handy for Kolkata Knight Riders who, like other teams, will be challenged to find their right combination in the early stages of the Indian Premier League. “My Mumbai T20 team needed me to keep and so I said, ' Why not? It’s a new challenge and I enjoyed it a lot and I’ve been practicing it quite a bit and we’ll see what happens with it,” Raghuvanshi told PTI in an exclusive interview.
With competition for spots in Indian teams across formats intensifying and specialist batters like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma also working on their bowling skills constantly, Raghuvanshi is in for the tough battle too. But he does not want to look at the competition just yet.
“I don’t really think about that too much. I just think about improving my own game as much as I can,” he said. “But yeah, it’s a very dynamic game and so I’m always working on, along with my batting, my fielding skills and my wicket-keeping skills also. I’m just trying to improve day by day and learn and get as better as I can,” Raghuvanshi added.
While the 21-year-old did not get many opportunities in red-ball domestic cricket for Mumbai, he featured in both white-ball tournaments, the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
“I felt I prepared as hard as I could, but I only judge my performances based on whether the team has won or not,” Raghuvanshi said.
“We (Mumbai) didn’t win any of the white-ball tournaments. But it’s okay, (there are) lots of learnings from it and I will work harder and come back a better player.”
“All the seasons that I will play are going to be equally big because I play every match like it’s going to be my last. I play every match as important as the next match. I feel I’ve been playing a lot of crickets this year, so I’m well prepared and hopefully I can do the job for the team and help my team win,” Raghuvanshi added. With his mentor and coach Abhishek Nayar taking over as the head coach of KKR, Raghuvanshi is confident there is a lot to learn from the former India player. “It’s going to be a great learning experience for me as well as the entire team. He has a great cricketing mind and (he is) a great person,” he said.
“We can all... I have already learned a lot from him and this season will be nothing different. I’ll continue to learn a lot from him and hopefully we win a lot of matches and we win the tournament together,” Raghuvanshi added.
There was, however, a concerning moment when Raghuvanshi was stretchered off the field during a Vijay Hazare Trophy match against Uttarakhand in Jaipur last December while attempting a catch.
“It was only scary for the first 10 minutes,” he recalled.
“I got a little dizzy, but then after that our team doctor was with me throughout and he checked for any symptoms of concussion. If I felt dizzy or if I felt nauseous for the next two days, but there was nothing and I was fine after that and back playing after two days,” Raghuvanshi added.
