Ranji final an opportunity for Akshay Wadkar to forge his legacy

"So you are telling me you want to step out to fast bowlers?" Vidarbha coach Chandrakant Pandit asked Akshay Wadkar with a puzzled expression.

This was 2017, and Wadkar's career was in the middle of nowhere. He was overage for the Under-23 Col CK Nayudu Trophy. For the Ranji Trophy, Jitesh Sharma and Siddhesh Wath were the selectors' top two choices for the wicketkeeper's role, so he could not find a place in that squad either.

Like most kids in India, Wadkar's cricketing journey had started at a ground next to his home. Unlike most kids in India, especially in the 2000s, he had full support from his parents to pursue cricket as a career.

"My dad always gave me the freedom to do whatever I wanted to," Wadkar, 29, tells ESPNcricinfo. "He would say, 'studies or cricket, the choice is yours'. He knew it was not easy to do well in both simultaneously, and if I focused on one thing, the results would be better. So he never forced me to study. Even in class ten, I went to school for only about three months. The rest of the time I was playing cricket."

The parents' support and Wadkar's hard work meant he made his List A debut in 2013, at the age of 18. However, by 2017, it had been more than two years since he had last played for Vidarbha.

But Wadkar's hopes were suddenly renewed. Just before the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy, the Vidarbha Cricket Association decided to change the format of the Guzder League A Division, their local tournament. Until then, it was a 50-over tournament. Now the association decided to make it a two-day format, and run it parallel to the Ranji Trophy.

The idea was to have more options if the selectors wanted to make changes during the Ranji season. Wadkar grabbed this opportunity with both hands, and scored two hundreds and three fifties in the league. With Jitesh and Wath not living up to the expectations in the first three Ranji games, the selectors turned to Wadkar.

"I was in the middle of a match, waiting to go out at two down, when I learned that I was selected for the Ranji Trophy," Wadkar recalls.

He did not play straightaway and had to wait for one more game. When he finally made his first-class debut, he did not get a chance to bat, as Vidarbha crushed Goa by an innings. His first outing with the bat was against Himachal Pradesh, where he was lbw to Rishi Dhawan for 15 in the only innings.

"After the match, Wasim Jaffer bhaiyya told me I was late on the ball, that's why I got lbw. I didn't have a trigger movement then. He said if I had an initial movement, I would react to the ball better.

"I thought if he had suggested something, it must be useful. There was a gap of around eight days before the next game, the quarter-final against Kerala. During that time, I tried to make some minor changes to my technique. But I was so confused that not only could I not incorporate anything new, but almost forgot my original technique too."

The quarter-final against Kerala started after tea because of rain, and Vidarbha lost three wickets before stumps. Wadkar was still in a state of confusion, so he decided to speak to Pandit that night.

Eventually, Pandit agreed.

The next day, Vidarbha were in even more trouble, 87 for 5 when Wadkar walked in. It soon became 95 for 6, but batting in his own style, Wadkar scored a crucial 53 to help them post 246.

Vidarbha not only took a first-innings lead but also went on to win the game, with Wadkar scoring another fifty in the second innings. In the final against Delhi, Wadkar top-scored with 133 as Vidarbha won their maiden Ranji Trophy title.

So far Wadkar has scored eight first-class hundreds. But even today, he rates that 53 as his best innings. "That was the turning point of my career," he says. "It was a challenging knock, both technically and mentally, and really boosted my confidence."

Wadkar's career graph has gone in only one direction from there. Since his debut, he has been the most prolific wicketkeeper-batter in the Indian domestic circuit. In 50 first-class games, he has 3036 runs at an average of 49.77. No wicketkeeper has more hundreds in this period.

Still, he never got an India A call-up.

What more does he need to do?

Wadkar asked the same question to MS Dhoni when he met him in Ranchi earlier this year.

"Whoever is your competition, you need to score one-and-a-half times - even two times - the runs he is scoring," Dhoni replied. "Only then you will get selected. If you are not getting selected, you should analyse why. If you start thinking you are deserving and still not getting selected, you will fall into that loop and delay improving where you lack. If you think about why you were not selected, you will start working on that from the very next day."

Wadkar is aware he needs to score big hundreds to draw the selectors' attention. Which is why he is not satisfied with seven fifties and no hundreds this season.

"Before this season, I had eight hundreds and ten fifties," he says. "Every second fifty I was converting into a hundred. But this time it didn't happen.

"I have a 38 as well this season. That should also have been a fifty and a hundred. I feel once you have scored 20, you should not get out unless it is a really good ball. Because by then you have faced 35-40 balls, and have an idea about the conditions. After that, you can get out only if you lose concentration."

At the same time, Wadkar knows he could not have converted all seven fifties into hundreds.

He recounts: "Against Jharkhand, I was out as the ninth wicket in the first innings. In the second, it was the last ball before the declaration. Against Services, I got uneven bounce, and against Haryana, I was caught down the leg side. I could not have done much in those situations. But the other three fifties I should have converted."

There was another disappointment at the start of this season. After leading Vidarbha to the semi-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2021-22 and 2022-23, he lost the white-ball captaincy to Atharva Taide.

That is easier to understand, though. Wadkar's white-ball returns, especially in the shortest format, have been unremarkable. After 28 T20 games, his strike rate is a pedestrian 103.26.

And that also means it was not about his leadership skills, which he picked up from his predecessor Faiz Fazal and then-coach Pandit.

"I learned a lot from him [Fazal]," Wadkar says. "Not just tactics and gameplan but also how to treat players. Every player is different, so you have to mould yourself depending on whom you are talking to.

"A couple of guys, like Yash Thakur and Aditya Thakare, are a bit sensitive. If I use harsh words with them, they go into a shell. So I have to be polite with them."

Being polite is what comes naturally to Wadkar. He is a rare wicketkeeper who is shy of sledging the batter. "Only when emotions are high, and that too against certain teams, like Karnataka, it happens automatically, otherwise I do not sledge," he says.

But what does he do when he has to be strict with his players? That he learned from Pandit.

"When I see the boys are taking it easy, especially on the field, I don't scold them, but I make them aware that they need to buck up. Chandu sir used to do that, and it has worked for me as well."

Wadkar cites the recent Ranji semi-final. Chasing 321, Madhya Pradesh had raced to 86 for 1 in 17 overs before lunch on the fourth day.

In the break, Wadkar told his bowlers: "We had discussed earlier as well that we needed to keep it tight and not go for wickets. You are going for wickets and conceding runs in that. You need to keep it tight.

"In the first session, we had gone for more than five an over. In the next two, we gave away only 142 in 54 overs, which is around 2.5 [2.63] runs per over, and also picked up five wickets. So that is one way."

Vidarbha won comfortably in the end, and are now preparing to face Mumbai in the final, for their third Ranji Trophy title.

For Wadkar, it is another opportunity he would like to grab, this time to forge his legacy.