Sai Kishore - from a raging TNPL youngster to a Chennai Super ‘King’

Sai Kishore - from a raging TNPL youngster to a Chennai Super ‘King’

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TNPL

Sai Kishore's journey through the ranks has been nothing short of a Tamil Drama with the spinner becoming part of three-time IPL champions Chennai Super Kings. From being a raging youngster in the Tamil Nadu Premier League, he has turned a leaf to become a more calm and composed bowler.

On September 8, 2016, in Tamil Nadu Premier League, a youngster Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore lost his cool against his now-CSK teammate N Jagadeesan to get himself a ‘hot-headed’ tag. However, the tag, the temper and that Sai Kishore that we saw on that day was all short-lived. 

“The 2016 season in the TNPL, the rage I showed that was new to me. I failed to channelise the rage before into my performance. However, since I started channelising it better, I got the best out of myself,” Sai Kishore admitted to Sportscafe. 

Soon that youngster would turn the domestic scene over with his left-arm. Fast forward to the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2019, he emerged as the leading wicket-taker with 20 wickets in the tournament bowling in the powerplays. It took him three years, thousands of net sessions, an ‘internship’ in the Chennai Super Kings’ net against Dhoni to become a household name in Tamil Nadu. Following his success in SMAT, Kishore recalled on how the experience in Tamil Nadu’s dressing room had helped him during the tournament. For him, the presence of scouts in the stand did not affect his performance as he only looked to concentrate on his own bowling, improving himself every over. 

“No, not really. If I bothered too much about the scouts in the stand, my game would have been affected and I could not have shown my capability that they would be looking,” added Sai Kishore. 

Further, the presence of Dinesh Karthik had a telling effect on the youngster. Under Karthik’s leadership, Kishore grew in leaps and bounds bowling at the hardest time in a T20 inning, the powerplays. Alongside Karthik, the influence of Ramaswamy Prasanna and Divakar Vasu inside the dressing room has been immense, as Kishore points out how the duo helped him improve his skill-set and maintain composure during crunch situations. The new ball with the openers looking to attack the bowler never looked too daunting for the 23-year-old. 

“Playing under not only Dinesh Karthik, the influence of Vijay Shankar, Murali Vijay and Abhinav Mukund in the dressing room has been immense. From growing up watching them on the TV to being part of the same team with them is a lifetime experience in itself. More than half of my success I would dedicate to Karthik, he trusted me more than any skipper by giving me the opportunity to showcase my skills with the new ball.”

This is the Sai Kishore that we know, thanks to all the decisions that he had taken on his way to becoming a professional cricketer. He loves cricket, loves to study and more importantly believes in working hard in whatever he does as he recalled his school days. 

“In my childhood, I used to study so much but playing cricket it affected it a little bit. Since I loved studying, I used to top my class and maintain the perfect balance. But after my 11th and 12th, I wanted to take up cricket professionally. Actually, you would not believe it, playing sport increased my interest in studies and when I was playing I just concentrated on playing.”

A student of education then, a student of cricket now, Kishore has had a massive transformation in his career since his time at the coaching sessions in Adambakam. Under Janaki Raman, not only did he improve his own game but also developed a sense of belongingness and love for the sport. From a nerd who kept track of all his record to creating a statement for him to need no introduction on the domestic circuit, his career has come a long way. However, despite all of the success hitting him suddenly, he believes in resetting himself for the next game. 

“Forget, reset and grind. It’s all a fragment of your own imagination, there is nothing called as ‘success’ and ‘failure.’ You might think that you are having a good day, however, for the others, it might look like you have played a bad game. In modern cricket, you don’t have the luxury to take it casually and not work harder following a good game. Show up and keep working hard,” he said philosophically.  

And talking about ‘Madipakam,’ he just believes it's a tag hyped by the media. What began as a fun thing in the dressing room slowly turned huge into a tag with the emergence of Vijay Shankar in the National team. Madipakam, in his own words, is a ‘vera level’ area which is calm and serene contrast to the City’s hustle and bustle. 

“Actually, this ‘Madipakkam’ tag was just created as a fun thing in the dressing room between Vijay and myself. Both of us are so fond of the place, the calmness and the serenity it has compared to the other places. Also, it is exciting to see that our ‘vera level’ area has now got publicity on its own. It was first started as a result of the constant teasing in the dressing room, now it has grown to this level.” 

While the dressing room did a pull a leg or two, the spinners more or less worked closely together like knitted wool. A failure for any of the spinners would immediately lead to them helping out each other. As he said there is no place for ‘ego’ in any dressing room.

“To be honest, there is no ‘ego’ in the Tamil Nadu dressing room. Talking about the spinners, we share a really good relationship with each other, all of us keep looking at each other to improve all the time. There is absolutely no place for ‘jealousy’ in a dressing room.”

For him, the experience of being a ‘net-bowler’ more or less like an internship where put in the hard strides to get close to any result. However, since then he has bounced and bounced so hard that the franchises could not ignore him anymore. 

“I just want to go to the Chennai Super Kings dressing room, bowl against the likes of experienced professionals such as Watson, Dhoni and improve my own game. Also, I want to learn how the pros handle their success and never let to get it to their brain.”

Is he looking forward to the possible battle between him and Dinesh Karthik? For him, it would be a normal game having already bowled against him in the past during the Tamil Nadu Premier League. What does look forward to most when he is away from playing professional cricket? Playing more cricket, in particular, street cricket, the one that we have all grown up to at some point in our childhood. 

“I love playing street cricket, whenever I get the time you would find me to be the first person playing on the streets. ‘Play to Win’ is something I learnt and loved from playing with the Tennis-ball cricket.” 

Just like many of us, Sai Kishore too had to sadly wait till everything got over to get his ball back home and that too on a ‘lucky day.’ “Sadly, I was the ball owner so I did not get many opportunities like the bat owner to go home early.”

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