How Jagadeesan brought his Tamil Nadu career back to life

N Jagadeesan was pretty sure he was getting phased out of the Tamil Nadu team last season. He was only 28 and was one of the side's senior players, with eight years of domestic experience. He had broken records at the Vijay Hazare Trophy in the 2022-23 season. But he played only two games in the 2023-24 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and had an average return in the Vijay Hazare Trophy that followed. He was also pushed down to No. 7 from his regular opening position in the first match of the Ranji Trophy. Then, when he got a chance to move up to his preferred opening slot in his hometown Coimbatore, he wanted to make it count. He went on to enjoy his best season, racking up 816 runs in nine games at an average of 74.18, and went on to make the India B side for the ongoing Duleep Trophy.

Among the feats he achieved in the Ranji Trophy last season was also facing 400-plus balls in an innings in two consecutive games: he scored 245 not out against Railways and followed it up with 321 against Chandigarh.

"I was coming out of a place where I wasn't considered to be part of the team," Jagadeesan tells ESPNcricinfo. "In the second game [against Tripura] I didn't get to bat and the first game [against Gujarat] I didn't score a lot of runs, I was batting lower down the order too. The moment I went opening, I told myself there's no way I'm going to let my wicket go.

"There was a very much a driving factor after I got settled which kept telling me that 'you've struggled a lot and people have been talking about dropping you, you are not going to be in that situation ever again'. The moment I got settled in, there was another driving factor. I was settled and I was not letting it go. It's a different high when you know that you actually faced 400 balls because it involves a lot of stamina. My focus levels were really, really high too. I genuinely felt that I didn't have the patience to play 400 balls. It was the grit."

While Jagadeesan finished the season on a high, TN's campaign ended on a sour note. After their semi-final loss against Mumbai, Sulakshan Kulkarni, who was the coach of TN at the time, publicly criticised captain R Sai Kishore's decision to bat first.

It was the culmination of a season in which relations between the coach and the players were not smooth and, in that tricky situation, the TN players got a lot closer, Jagadeesan says, praising Sai Kishore's leadership.

"With the kind of situation we were put in, we as a team got as close as possible," Jagadeesan says. "We were tight last year. We had Sai Kishore who could really manage things well, and in terms of the way he put himself first for the team, especially when most of the seniors were on the verge of being dropped. Sai Kishore was the pillar last year. He held us together by giving us the confidence and security. With this, we as a team got really tight."

TN topped the Group C table last year and also comprehensively beat Saurashtra in the quarter-final before losing by an innings to Mumbai. It's been 36 years since TN won a Ranji Trophy title, and Jagadeesan believes 2025 will finally be their year, given how well the team is shaping up.

"We've been playing an exceptional brand of cricket," Jagadeesan says. "We played probably the best cricket [last year], but we were extremely unfortunate to have not qualified. But I think we've been putting in the good work and we've been planting seeds inside. I think this year we're going to win the trophy."

Jagadeesan had a "lot to learn" on and off the field last season, and he owes much of that success to working on his mental game. He practises meditation and mindfulness, he has a mentor in former India batter Robin Uthappa, who has extensively spoken about his own mental health.

"He [Uthappa] gives me a lot of tips and a lot of stuff [on mental health], like what I can do and where I can learn about myself," Jagadeesan says. "The basic ingredient for a sportsman to be mentally fit is the way he speaks to himself. If I'm going to just talk high about myself I'm going to grow in confidence. I think it's very simple to say this, but you know it's pretty hard to do it."

To upgrade his skills on the field, Jagadeesan has worked on a few technical aspects, including perfecting his sweep shot. He has also been working on getting back into the T20 fold, having played just two games in the 2023-24 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Despite missing out on an IPL deal in 2024, having been previously been with Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders, Jagadeesan is positive about his white-ball future.

"I want to improve my strike rate in T20s and also about the range of shots I want to play," he says. "Last year was an eye-opener. I got to know where I need to work on to crawl my way back to the IPL and start dominating. It made me realise I need to improve a lot more. It made me feel very grounded, like what I'm doing is not enough and that I need to work a lot harder."

During the downtime post the domestic season, Jagadeesan captained the TN Colts team on their UK tour in May for three weeks under coach L Balaji. That aside, he also dabbled in TV commentary during IPL 2024 and the men's T20 World Cup, which he says was an "eye-opening" experience.

"When you're at the comm box, you have to pay a lot of attention," he says. "You have to focus on the game and predict…only then you will be able to speak well. I realised even when I'm not playing the game, I knew what the bowlers were going to do by just watching. It was very insightful.

"For example, when you're in the comm box you actually predict what a fast bowler is going to do looking at the field set. You get deeper connections with the bowlers. That helps you while you bat against them as well, because you've actually seen what the bowler is going to do. If the thing I predict happens then I can say I've learned something out of it. There's a lot you can learn when you commentate."

Jagadeesan is hoping to harness all of these experiences, and has also set clear goals - which he usually doesn't do - heading into this domestic season.

"The ultimate aim for me is to be part of the Indian cricket team," he says. "I don't usually set goals coming into a domestic season, but I think it's high time I start doing that. In Ranji Trophy where I did not even think I could face 400 balls, I did that. These were the things which I did not even think was possible. Just like how my long-term goal is to play for India, there's always been a goal for me in my head since childhood which is to cross the 1000-run mark in Ranji Trophy. That's always been on my checklist."