Chennai

There was a time when any talk about cricket in Jharkhand focussed primarily on the exploits of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. But with five players from the state making it to the East Zone Duleep Trophy squad this year, the overall progress is hard to miss especially in unearthing batting talent.

"Some very good young cricketers are coming from Jharkhand," former Tamil Nadu batter and national selector Sreedharan Sharath observed here on the sidelines of their Duleep Trophy final against South Zone.

East Zone has five players from Jharkhand -- skipper Ishan Kishan, seasoned Virat Singh, and three promising players in Kumar Kushagra, Shikhar Mohan and Anukul Roy.

Roy is already a fairly familiar name because of his IPL stints but Jharkhand cricket officials have placed high expectations on two 21-year-olds -- Kushagra and Mohan.

"This (state players in East Zone) is the true reflection of Jharkhand cricket at the moment and all of the are deserving to be there, In fact another talented player Sharandeep did not get selected (for Duleep Trophy)," Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) secretary Saurabh Tiwary told PTI.

Tiwary, a former India batter and once an IPL regular, was effusive in his praise for Kushagra and Mohan.

"I am very surprised with Kumar (Kushagra). He is very young but his maturity level is very high. And Roy, you know, he is one of the best players we have here. He got five wickets (5/37) in the Duleep Trophy quarterfinal (vs North East Zone)," Tiwary pointed out.

"But he has been performing well since last season's Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Yeah, and Kushagra too scored a lot of runs for us in that tournament. Mohan is also showing a lot of promise and he had an excellent first domestic season and now hopefully he will carry on," said Tiwary.

Kushagra, who made first-class debut in 2022 as an 18-year-old, has already scored over 2000 runs in red-ball format with six hundreds, while Mohan, who debuted in the 2025-26 season, averages 55 with two hundreds.

But they are not one-trick ponies as both Kushagra and Mohan have excellent numbers in the white-ball formats too.

In fact, Kushagra was the third highest run-getter when Jharkhand lifted their first-ever Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy last season, scoring 422 runs in 10 innings at an average of 60.28.

"They contribute so well for the team in every format they play, not just big scores, you know these important 40s and 50s which make a lot of difference in the match," said Tiwary, who deserves some credit for bringing in changes to the cricketing landscape at home.

As someone who played 413 matches for Jharkhand across formats, Tiwary knows exactly what he has to do to give a fillip to the state cricket.

Tiwary also has his former teammate Shahabaz Nadeem, now the JSCA joint secretary, to fall back upon.

"You know, I have played 25 years for Jharkhand at various age groups. So, I know the level of cricket and I know where the fault is and where the positive thing is in the state.

"Me and Nadeem have been changing our domestic cricket structure. You know, junior cricketers were playing one-day cricket earlier. But from last year, we changed the league stage into two-day matches, knockout matches into three-day, and the final into a four-day contest."

So, what prompted that change?

"We are focussing on developing skills, not focusing just on the performance. If players can develop their skill levels in junior cricket, if their technique is good, then the players can score hundreds, double hundreds, and even triple hundreds.

"A good technique is essential to play irrespective of the format."

Tiwary's words reflected justly in Mohan's 120-ball 85, an innings in which the Jharkhand young man showed exemplary judging skills outside the off-stump.

"I think the journey has been great. My first Ranji Trophy season went really well. So, the plan for this match (Duleep Trophy) was to carry forward that form and maintain the momentum," said Mohan.

Ishan Jaggi, former state player and the current Jharkhand Under-23 coach, said they have been intensely focussing on skill development at junior level.

"Our plan is to nurture young boys and get them ready for the upper level of cricket. Accordingly, we were playing practice matches for the under-23s in Pondicherry," he said.

"The more matches you play, the more situations you face, the more adaptation you get as a player. You bat for a longer duration...that is when you start getting 100s and that becomes a habit," Jaggi told PTI.

"So, until and unless you have that concentration to bat for a longer period of time, you cannot succeed in red ball cricket, which is different from T20 cricket where you have a maximum of 20 overs (to bat)."

India wicketkeeper batter and Jharkhand skipper Ishan Kishan concurred.

"Converting starts is a habit, and historically, I feel that's an area where our East Zone setup has lagged -- we never really built that culture. We were often content with scoring 70s or 80s, while set batters from opposing teams consistently converted them into massive scores.

"I was trying to drum into them (young Jharkhand batters) that scoring big is a habit: when you're set, go on and get a big score so you don't look back with regret thinking, 'I threw it away on 80'," said Kishan.

Jaggi said the return of Tiwary and Nadeem to Jharkhand in administrative roles has made a big difference because they are attuned to the demands of three-format cricket of modern day.

But that's just one part. Tiwary knows that domestic infrastructure, particularly at the grassroots level, still needs to be improved.

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"...we have only one stadium (JSCA International Stadium Complex). The Keenan Stadium is under the Tata group, and we have an excellent relationship with them, thus, we get to play Ranji matches and some other domestic matches there," he said.

"So we are trying to build new academies. We have four zones here and we are trying to establish one academy in each of those zones. So, the young players, women cricketers don't need to travel all the way to Ranchi to have top class training facilities," Tiwary added.