Only weeks after he put on the Ranji Trophy whites for Madhya Pradesh for the first time in the winter of 2014, Saransh Jain’s cricket career took on a new purpose. On Tuesday, the goal attained fulfilment — a maiden India Test call-up realising his ailing father’s dream.
Subodh Jain could not talk to his son when he returned from a tour to Australia with an Indore club shortly after his First-Class debut 12 years ago. A former MP Ranji Trophy off-spinner himself, Subodh was diagnosed with mouth cancer.
He had taught Saransh the craft. Now he found another way to lend him the spark to guide him through the unforgiving, often brutal, journey of a First-Class cricketer. A message on a piece of paper would share all there was to be told to revive a shattered Saransh’s spirits.
“I could not speak because of my condition after surgery back then. I wrote to him on a paper that if he started performing better, I would recover sooner,” Subodh tells The Indian Express.
Saransh has gone through a relentless grind over the last decade to emerge as an old-school success story. He has taken the longer route to earn an India shirt these days, fuelled almost entirely by red-ball cricket.
The Indore-born spinner’s selection for the forthcoming Sri Lanka tour gives hope to the many triers and hopefuls lacking lucrative IPL deals. Saransh is only the third man after Murali Vijay (2008) and Mohammad Shami (2013) to make the India squad before securing an IPL contract. At 33, he is also the oldest to receive his maiden India call-up this century.
Age isn’t a deterrent in his case, but a measure of his sustained efforts. Saransh has spent years waiting. On the bench, away from squads, as an understudy or prospect, behind one big name or the other. Former MP coach Harvinder Sodhi recounts Saransh’s five-wicket haul on debut in Chennai. That wasn’t enough to overcome the steep competition.
He was jostling for room behind Jalaj Saxena, arguably the best off-spinner of his generation to miss an India cap, with R Ashwin comfortably dominating the Test set-up.
“Jalaj was the main bowler for us at that time. Saransh couldn’t crack through the first few years. He was a standout performer in all age-group divisions. He worked hard and even became a Ranji champion with consistent performances in the last five years,” Sodhi, now part of the national junior selection committee, told The Indian Express.
Saransh persisted, even though between 2014 and 2019, he played just eight Ranji games, collecting 11 wickets.
The Pandit effect
But when the domestic pool of specialist off-spinners began to thin, Saransh’s consistency became harder to ignore. The arrival of Chandrakant Pandit as MP’s head coach in 2020 was a catalyst.
“Chandu sir ne hi usko sikhaya hai aur mauka bhi diya hai. (Pandit had given Saransh direction and opportunities to take flight), says Subodh.
Others couldn’t gauge a Test-level cricketer in him but Pandit was impressed by his primary skill-set. “He was nowhere near being a regular when I took over, playing one or two games a year. When I saw his genuine ability, I decided to push him. I even dropped a senior guy for him,” the former India wicketkeeper said.
Saransh’s consistent lines and high-arm action attracted his attention. Pandit approached the tall offie with an unusual tweak that would bolster his wicket-taking abilities.
“Not often do we notice an off-spinner starting spells bowling from round the wicket. That is a skill he has developed. I convinced him after showing him his own videos that he could be more effective from round the wicket.
“This is his strength – not only bowling from round the stumps but also bowling that line,” says Pandit.
He cites the thin channel between the off and middle-stump that Saransh targets, testing batters on both edges. The transformation has rewarded him with greater returns and theatre, like when he castled a well-set Prithvi Shaw and trapped Sarfaraz Khan leg-before from around the stumps in the 2024 Irani Cup.
An injury to Washington Sundar meant Saransh was next in line in India’s diminishing spin pool after two solid years. He has clocked 122 of his 188 career First-Class wickets since 2024, while scoring over 1,500 runs with two centuries in this period. His claim as a back-up option was strengthened further with an unbeaten 70 and six wickets against Sri Lanka A earlier this month, that too at Galle, the venue of India’s first Test in three weeks.
“He is a genuine off-spinner, not a batsman who can bowl. The first I’ve seen in the Indian set-up since Ashwin,” says Pandit.
A simple handwritten note from his father had lit the spark 12 years ago. Saransh stayed the course until First-Class cricket finally won him an India call-up.