3 reasons why Baba Indrajith deserves a chance in India's Test side
Duleep Trophy and Baba Indrajith seem synonymous with each other. The tournament has been running for ages but this is the first time in years that it has got this much attention, mostly thanks to the fortunate timing of the off-season but also to the selectors' push for the best talent in the country to play in it.
The attention to the tournament has also brought the spotlight on Indrajith, who is, among the players featuring in the current edition, the second-highest run-scorer in the Duleep Trophy. His 792 runs at 66 are just short of Mayank Agarwal's 836 runs at 52.25, with the latter playing three more innings.
Indrajith's twin 70s in the first three innings this year for India 'C' has made him trend on social media. He has reached a new audience, one that wasn't aware of his level of consistency and grit.
The audience he wants, though, has been on large as an India call-up seems as far away as it was before the tournament began. But, below, we make a case why Indrajith should be in the selectors' plans for India's Test future with three points:
#3 Indrajith is one of the best first-class players (in the world, not just India)
ESPNCricinfo released a telling stat in February this year: at that time, Indrajith's batting average in first-class cricket was 63.60 -- the best for any batter in the world since 2017 with a minimum of 40 innings. To put it in simple words, Indrajith has been the best first-class batter in the world since 2017.
That's what is being debated. The four men behind him in the list were Pathum Nissanka, Kane Williamson, Kamindu Mendis and Bahir Shah -- the first three are now staples for their Test teams while Bahir is considered a prodigy in Afghanistan and has already played a Test. In any other country, Indrajith would have been a Test regular too.
One thing that is spoken against Indrajith is his lack of "big" 1000-run seasons and lack of big-match moments. However, he scored a century in the last Duleep Trophy, and despite not having a 1000-run season, he has scored at least one century in each of the Ranji Trophy seasons since 2016 (barring 2019 when he was injured).
How many in India have that kind of consistency? The answer is hardly any. If the selectors want a proven performer and promote a batter from domestic cricket to internationals, Indrajith can't be anywhere but the top of the list.
#2 Considered among the best players of spin in the country
Now, there have been questions on India's Test selections around batters like Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer and even Suryakumar Yadav, whose first-class numbers are acres behind Indrajith. In fact, when Shreyas was selected for the Test team in 2022, he hadn't played in the Ranji Trophy for four years.
But, the common logic to explain each of their inclusions was their excellent game against spin, which the selectors seemed to have picked up from white-ball cricket. However, now that all are out of the squad, Indrajith deserves a look too.
He's widely considered one of the best players of spin in the country and given how well he has done in Tamil Nadu, the numbers prove the same. His footwork is almost always on point, the biggest recent example being the 80 runs he scored on a gripping track in the Ranji quarterfinal against Saurashtra this year.
Although India haven't been as bad against spin as some seem to think, it is still a substantial issue, and one without any clear solutions yet. At least for the home games, at the very least when the first-choice middle-order players aren't available, Indrajith could be given at least a chance to showcase his capacities, just like Shreyas and Patidar got.
#1 Monk among the hitters
Currently, India's Test plans seem to be entirely aligned towards the tour of Australia later this year. A simple look at the batting line-up for the home Tests against Australia shows a team which could well be an ODI side, full of brilliant dynamic batters who can bat slowly if needed but love to play on the front foot and keep the game moving.
But is that enough? The lack of batting stability and an England-like lineup has never been India's style. The team has always had a Rahul Dravid or a Cheteshwar Pujara to hold one end when the going is the toughest, to take a few body blows for the team, to absorb momentum and then flip it.
This is not to say that India need a Pujara replacement now and that Shubman Gill isn't good enough to improve his numbers at one-down. But there could be a chance that against a good Bangladeshi side, India's attack-minded batting line-up gets found out a bit.
If that happens, the selectors should not look further than Indrajith, who is called the "monk" in the domestic circles for his temperament and who is never shy of dropping anchor and playing the attritional game. Even now, he can at least be a reliable back-up in the squad, but with a few chances he can push for a starting spot too.