Virat Singh, Jharkhand's crisis man

Virat Singh has become the troubleshooter of Jharkhand cricket of late. When he comes out to bat at his favourite No. 4 position, Jharkhand are invariably in trouble. After two early wickets, the responsibility falls on his shoulders to bail them out. And Virat rarely disappoints, scoring runs with the style of a typical left-hand batter.

Consider the game against Services in Delhi. In extremely cold and difficult batting conditions, Jharkhand were 8 for 2 when Virat walked in. It soon became 8 for 3 and 65 for 4. But Virat stood firm at one end and rescued his team by adding 171 runs with 19-year-old wicketkeeper-batter Kumar Kushagra. In all, Virat scored 108 with the help of 15 fours and Jharkhand ended with 316.

This was not a one-off occasion. Since the resumption of domestic cricket post the Covid-19 pandemic, he has scored eight hundreds in 17 first-class games. Most of those centuries helped his team in getting out of trouble.

"When you play first-class cricket, you have to take challenges, that is why it is called 'first-class' cricket," Virat says. "Since I got this responsibility [of captaincy], I have been trying to do my best to fulfil it. When you get responsibility, you have to own it. That's what I'm trying to do."

This was Virat's second consecutive hundred this season. In the previous game, he had scored 108 against Maharashtra to take his team beyond 400. Earlier this season, in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, he scored 360 runs, including two centuries, at an average of 60.00 and a strike rate of 98.09. Before that, he tallied 259 in six innings at 43.16 and 154.16 in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. On both occasions, he was the leading run-getter for his side.

In 2021-22, the first Ranji Trophy season after the pandemic, Virat played a key role in Jharkhand making the knockouts. In the quarter-final against Bengal, when Jharkhand were losing wickets regularly, he stood tall with an unbeaten 113. But his lone effort could not take Jharkhand past Bengal's first-innings total of 773.

When Virat was made captain in the next season, he celebrated it by scoring two centuries each in both the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Ranji Trophy. Jharkhand reached the quarter-final of the Ranji Trophy for the second successive year, but Bengal once again stopped them.

This domestic season, Virat is again looking in great form. After doing well in white-ball cricket, he wants to make this season special in the Ranji Trophy.

"I have not changed anything for this season, my technique is still more or less the same," Virat says. "But I have worked a lot on my mindset. I have been performing consistently well for the last two-three years, but just scoring two or three centuries in a season doesn't get you that much recognition. So I have thought that I will make this season big.

"I don't want to stop after scoring just two or three centuries but want to end the season with four, five or six centuries."

One of his goals is to make it to the India A side. Recently, when the selectors picked the team for the England Lions games, Kushagra found a place in the squad but Virat's name was nowhere. Earlier, even when a large group of young players toured South Africa for an A series, Virat didn't make the cut.

"Yes, I am disappointed, but not thinking too much about it," he says. "Nothing can be done about this. I was hoping I would get a place in the India A team against England Lions, but it did not happen. But it's okay. My job is to score runs and I will keep scoring runs. When I have to be selected in the team, it will happen."

When MS Dhoni played in a few Vijay Hazare Trophy matches for Jharkhand in 2016-17, he had praised the technique and fitness of then 20-year-old Virat. Virat also puts a lot of emphasis on his fitness and training, and this is clear from his Instagram account as well, which is full of his gym and ground training videos.

"Earlier I used to be a very chubby player," Virat recalls. "But I worked hard on my fitness and sweated in the gym. I am now faster and more aggressive on the field than before. Those who see me in the gym or on the ground know that I am focused on my fitness.

"I have been continuously working hard on my fitness for the last five-six years and this year too I made a resolution to continue this hard work."

At the 2020 IPL auction, Sunrisers Hyderabad bought Virat for INR 1.9 crore (US$ 250,000 approx). But he got only three matches in two years, in which he failed to make an impact, and was released from the team. Since then, he has not been picked by any IPL team. He was hopeful of getting picked at the mini-auction in December 2023, but it did not happen. But Virat is not disappointed. Now his hope is from the mega IPL auction before the 2025 edition.

"I gave trials for three-four franchises and was hopeful that I would definitely be selected in some team or the other," he says. "But maybe I am a top-order batter and most teams wanted a middle-order batter or a finisher. So now I feel that when the mega auction happens, some team will bet on me, because then most of the teams will start afresh again."