Chandrasekar soaring to new heights

After helping his team secure a slender 15-run lead, left-arm spinner DT Chandrasekar ripped off his shirt, sprinted like a man possessed, and it took some doing to stop him in his tracks. And Chandra was the star in Jolly Rovers’ nine-wicket win this week when he took a match haul of nine wickets against AG’s Office in First Division. 

A good six weeks have elapsed since those histrionics and when asked what triggered him to act the way he did, the 24-year-old spinner said it wasn’t premeditated and came as a spontaneous outpouring of unbridled joy. “We (Jolly Rovers) were at the receiving end of two consecutive final losses at the hands of Vijay CC. 

We were desperate to avenge those painful defeats. This year’s final was a much closer affair and I was thrilled with my five-wicket haul as it helped our team wrest back the trophy,” explained Chandrasekar. That final may have brought the curtains down on the previous season, but Chandrasekar’s penchant for scalp-hunting shows no signs of diminishing. 

In the current season, he has already bagged two five-fors, apart from a couple of four-wicket hauls. His latest match-winning heroics against AGORC has seen him increase his wicket tally to 25 after the completion of four matches. Chandrasekar, though, is wary of pitfalls as he had the bitter experience of being dropped from last season’s Ranji probables following a below par outing in both the TNPL and the TNCA First Division league. “I have represented Tamil Nadu in five Ranji Trophy matches and took 18 wickets two seasons ago. 

Last year, I failed to make an impression and was subsequently omitted from the squad. I have to vie for a leftarm spinner’s slot with three others in Rahil S Shah, R. Sai Kishore and R. Aushik Srinivas. It will be tough to break into the first team but if I keep performing consistently for Rovers, I might get a look-in,” remarked a hopeful Chandrasekar. 

Not many are aware that he started off his career as a fast bowler at the district level and it was only after shifting his base to Chennai that the spinner in him came to the fore. 

“We used to play matches on matting wickets in districts. They encouraged bounce but once I started playing on turf wickets, I made a conscious decision to turn to spin. I’m a diminutive person so I thought it would be a sensible choice,” added Chandrasekar. 

What he lacks in height, he more than makes up for it with his guile in running rings around clueless batsmen.