CHENNAI: In an era where T20 cricket often dominates the ambitions of young cricketers, Jeganathan Hemchudeshan has his sights firmly set on the longest format.

Born in the T20 era, the 18-year-old Tamil Nadu off-spinner has a simple dream: to represent India in Test cricket. With just three first-class appearances behind him, he has a long way to go but has already shown signs of promise.

“My dream is to play for India in Test matches only. My ambition is to play Tests—if I represent India, it has to be in Tests,” Hemchudeshan told select journalists before Tamil Nadu’s clash against Railways. 

The 18-year-old has played just three first-class games, with nine wickets for showing, averaging 26.88, but when you look at his action and follow-through, you see all the necessary ingredients – be it flight, drift or using the angles – to succeed at the highest level. 

“I want to be a Test player. I'm putting in a lot of effort into how much more I need to practice for that and how to keep improving my strengths. With that effort, I'm trying to stay focused and convert it into performance.”

“Whatever I recognise as my core strength, I am working on it with sharp focus to take my game to the next level.

Over the last two years, Hemchudeshan has made rapid strides, starting with his debut at the Vinoo Mankad Trophy before his record-breaking outing at the Cooch Behar Trophy, where he picked up 42 wickets for Tamil Nadu, averaging 15.14, including two five-wicket hauls and a ten-wicket haul. 

But when white-ball cricket is on, and there’s a lot of noise around, the 18-year-old wants to keep things simple without any distraction. 

“I try to keep it under control and maintain self-control. I don't want to get distracted. Right now, I need to focus on Tests. Whatever happens will happen, we should trust our process and keep going along with it,” he said. 

“If a white-ball opportunity comes along later, I will definitely put in whatever effort is needed for that too. But I won't give up on my core strengths for that. Until that happens, I will control what is in my hands and just focus on my game.”

The off-spinner also made a big call of skipping the ‘lucrative’ Tamil Nadu Premier League gig to further focus on his red-ball skillset, spending quality time at the Centre of Excellence (CoE) under the watchful eyes of Sunil Joshi, and also caught the attention of several big names like Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman to name a few. 

“I worked there [CoE] for the last 3 to 4 months. I've been working on my bowling with Sunil Joshi Sir—whenever we go there, he is our coach. Working with him was genuinely great. I learned a lot at the COE,” the off-spinner said. 

During that stint, the off-spinner also worked a lot on imparting more revs on the ball and getting more spin, utilising his angles against some of the Indian stars. “Discussing with them about what lines and lengths to bowl provided a lot of clarity, which helped me improve.”

Having started to play the sport at four, it wasn’t until he was seven that Hemchudeshan’s name started making the headlines, with his performance in the inter-school tournaments. It wasn’t until he was in his early teens (around 15) when his coach Vinoth Kumar asked him to switch to off-spin. 

Here at the Tamil Nadu setup, Hemchudeshan has been in consistent touch with Wilkins Vijay Victor, who has been with the state’s age-group system, and helping the off-spinner in each step of the way. 

“I’ve been working a lot with Wilkins [Vijay Victor], and he’s been working with me since the past three or four years. I’m taking in a lot of inputs, and learning new ideas from him and working on executing those out there in the field.”

Despite just two first-class appearances before the season, Vijaykumar Yo Mahesh and the management have instilled tremendous faith in the 18-year-old, backing him to be part of the spin troika alongside Sai Kishore and S Ajith Ram. 

“I'm getting great backing, with Yomi [Yo Mahesh] anna and Chinna [Srinivasan] backing me well. Both have provided strong support to me across batting and bowling. Even when I’m confused out there in the field, they step in to give me clarity, and applying that makes it easy for me.”

“My goal is to keep learning from here on and do well in the future.”