Chandrakant Pandit: The Alchemist

The name Chandrakant Pandit has developed into a legend of sorts in the last few years. He is the alchemist who has mastered the art turning whatever he touches into gold. Two years back, Vidarbha were a team contented with the knock-out spot. The last-eight stage was the threshold for them. 'So near yet so far', it seemed, was coined keeping in mind Vidarbha's many tryst to go past the quarterfinals of the Ranji Trophy.
Then, before the 2017-18 season, Pandit took over the team. Nothing has been same ever since. Pandit raised the bar in his first year as Vidarbha coach. The historic season saw Vidarbha clinch their maiden Ranji Trophy followed by Irani Trophy. This year, they will clash with Saurashtra in the final. Since the hard taskmasters' appointment, Vidarbha have an unbeaten record in 19 Ranji matches over the last two seasons.
Yet, the coach puts the team in front when it comes to basking in the limelight of the unprecedented glory. In Wayanad, where Vidarbha thrashed Kerala by innings and 11 runs in the semifinal, Pandit during press conferences over two days, talked about things that have clicked for the team and more…
Ever since you took over Vidarbha's charge the team has been unbeatable. You have been guiding force of the team…
I don't believe in the theory that a coach can hold the centre-stage. It's the eleven players who have to perform on the field. Yes, the coach can come up with ideas and tactics. But, it depends on players how they take the idea. How they implement the tactics formulated by the coach.
Yes, it depends on the coach how he convinces a player about a plan. How good his communication is regarding that plan. How well he can read the game. But when it comes to matches it is players who have to perform. So the spotlight should always be on the players and not the coach.
Sanjay has made superb comeback after being dropped. What has worked for him?
I always believed that Sanjay (Ramaswamy) will come good. Sometime, a break can do a player a world of good. That's why we opted for Atharva Taide for few matches. After the break, Sanjay came back superbly with a ton.
Wasn't it a risk to include Sanjay, who is out of form, in the team for the knock-outs?
Yes, it was a gamble to include Sanjay in place of Taide. The young lad (Taide) had scored runs in the few matches he had played. But with Sanjay, though the runs were not coming, I was sure about his ability. Thankfully the gamble with Sanjay worked. He is back in runs and is looking in great touch now.
When we decided to give break to Sanjay, I had a long chat with him. I told him that he will be back in team soon. He was asked to work on few areas, and he did just that. We were monitoring him constantly.
Taide had a score of 95 against Mumbai, wasn't it unfair on Taide?
Taide has potential. I want to groom him for the future. He is good but there is some time before he is fully ready for this level. And most importantly we wanted him to have games. That's why he was released for the U-23 match. We are very happy about the way youngsters have performed. Not just Taide or Thakur, the likes of Aditya Thakare too has performed well.
This year a lot of players, who were part of the Ranji squad, were released for age-group matches. What was the though process?
The idea is to have the best combination at any given time and simultaneously groom young players who could serve Vidarbha for the next 10 years. I'm thankful to the selection committee for feeding us with good players. Prashant Vaidya has been of great help to us. He is in-charge of cricket. He is someone who understands cricket well. He knows what the team requires. He backs us wholeheartedly.
Now, Vidarbha have problem of plenty in almost every department of the game…
That's what we wanted to achieve. I wanted to create a big pool of players. I want players to be on their toes and not to get complacent. We have a good number of fast bowlers now who are competing each other for a place in the playing eleven. Same is the case with the spinners.
Ambidextrous Akshay Karnewar had a good last season. But sometimes due to the playing conditions and sometimes due to the match situation he was not always in the playing XI. Still, he was always part the team. Now, I have a spinner who is match ready. I have options if someone is not up to the mark. Same with the openers. Now, I have three of them.
What's the reason behind Jaffer's phenomenal run this season?
Jaffer...well what to say about him. He used to always put a price on his wicket. It was never easy to get him out. What really has changed with him is his fitness. He has really worked hard on that front. We all can see how big a difference that has made. Also, what kind of start you have to the season plays an important role. The big, fluent innings at the start of the season got Jaffer going.