Ranji Trophy 2023-24: Growth of homegrown talents biggest achievement for Pondicherry, says captain Damodaran

Pondicherry’s graph in cricket is slowly growing and the future looks promising with upcoming young talents, captain Rohit Damodaran said while reflecting takeaways from the current Ranji Trophy season.

Leading his team in the final league game of the tournament against Himachal Pradesh here at the Siachem Stadium, he said that the goal is to finish the season on a high. But he is aware that his team had a chance to qualify for the quarterfinals which it blew away.

Pondicherry began its campaign with two wins in three matches, with a loss sandwiched in between. However, in the next three matches, it drew one and lost two – both at home.

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“This tournament, we started it well, in the middle we let go,” Rohit told Sportstar. “So that’s the lesson from the season, just go and play positive cricket,” he added.

But Rohit has no complaints with his team, knowing the lack of exposure did play a role.

“Until last season, we were getting our wins and draws at home. We were not so good when we were travelling because of lack of exposure. But now, when we went to Delhi, they played a packed bowling unit and the way we showed courage and got an outright win, it was a brilliant start.”

He further reflected on how Pondicherry did have a chance to chase Orissa’s 240-run target but fell short by a close margin (65 runs); it eventually ended in a draw.

According to Rohit, the team can’t go from zero to 100 straight away but with more experience, it is increasing its level.

“We were 25-30, then we went to 50, now we are 75. So we don’t have to do anything different, we just have to be in the situation, take the experience of this tournament that in the middle we could have done certain things better.”

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After “looking to survive” in the last few seasons, Rohit is happy that the youngsters have performed when the professional players haven’t, which means the homegrown talents now have what it takes to play at this level.

“We were banking heavily on our professional players. But now if you see our professional players except Gaurav (Yadav), they didn’t really have a great season and still we have done well.

“So the biggest plus is that our youngsters, our homegrown talents are coming out and performing. And next year, there are a few more coming. So the future is very promising for Pondicherry,” Rohit said.