Ranji Trophy 2024-25: Akash Anand won’t let injury dampen his dream debut season

Ranji Trophy 2024-25: Akash Anand won’t let injury dampen his dream debut season

A couple of months ago, Akash Anand fractured his wrist during a Purshottam Shield fixture, which forced him to miss out on the entire white-ball season for Mumbai.

It came as a blow for the wicketkeeper-batter, who was hoping to make it count in List A cricket for Mumbai after making his Ranji Trophy debut against the Services earlier this season.

While it was a tough phase, Anand did not lose hope. With the physios working around the clock to get him fit, the Anand returned to Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy squad for the fixture against Meghalaya, and eventually went on to score his maiden First-Class century.

“Coming from an injury, I did not get a game in the local tournament to assess my match fitness, but with the backing of the Mumbai coach and captain, I did some match simulation and went on to play this game,” Anand said. 

Replacing Hardik Tamore in the playing eleven, it was a huge challenge for the 29-year-old Anand to prove his mettle. But he took things in his stride and put the pressure on an inexperienced Meghalaya bowling line-up. “The main motive was that we have to bat just once in this game to get a bonus point,” he said.

“The biggest motivation (was) to bat long and stay focused irrespective of their first innings’ score, because we did not want to take any chance whatsoever with regards to our second innings batting so that was the focus and luckily it clicked.”

It has been quite a journey for him.

Despite leading the Cricket Club of India in the local tournaments, he had to wait for a long time to make it to the Mumbai team. With not much opportunity coming his way, he travelled to Sri Lanka in 2022 to represent Chilaw Marians Cricket Club in its List A tournament.

Though it was an off-season outing for him, the experience of featuring in three games in Sri Lanka helped him immensely as he went on to score runs at the Kanga League and other domestic tournaments in Mumbai before making the cut for the Ranji Trophy.

While it has been a learning experience for him in the Mumbai side, sharing the dressing room with some of the icons of Indian cricket, Anand admitted that the century against Meghalaya will boost his morale. “This is very important for me before the knockouts because I wanted to have that feeling that I belong here and (there is) nothing better than scoring a hundred to feel like it,” he said with a smile.