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Follow UsGlenn Pocknall, former head coach of Wellington who oversaw Rachin Ravindra’s formative years at the club, clearly remembers the time a 20-year-old Ravindra ripped to shreds an Auckland attack that featured Lockie Ferguson and Kyle Jamieson among others.
“It really springboarded his white-ball game, giving him confidence to back his skills by playing his natural game,” Pocknall tells Cricket.com, recollecting the knock Ravindra played four years ago.
Making the jump from junior to senior cricket is hard enough as it is but at 20, in his seventh ever List A game, Ravindra was up against an Auckland attack that featured two capped and two soon-to-be-capped Kiwi bowlers: Jamieson, Ferguson, Ben Lister and William Somerville.
Most 20-year-olds would have been intimidated by an attack of such quality but not Ravindra.
In a stupefying showing that lasted all of 166 minutes, the then 20-year-old hammered 130 off 109 balls, taking the entire Auckland attack to the cleaners. He took a special liking to Ferguson, by some distance the quickest bowler in the country, as the right-arm tearaway finished the contest with 1/76 off 10 overs.
“It was a knock that said, ‘I’m here to compete and ready to take on any attack’,” Pocknall says.
If the 130 against Auckland all those years ago was Ravindra’s “I’ve arrived” statement at the domestic level, the 23-year-old had his “I’m him” moment at the international level on Thursday.
And he announced himself on the grandest stage of all.
There are good knocks. There are great knocks. And then there are knocks that bring the entire cricketing world to a standstill due to how stupendously good they are.
Ravindra’s knock against England on Thursday has not just got the world talking, but it’s provided this World Cup with a spark that it so badly needed.
There are some performances that extend beyond numbers, even if the numbers actually do justice to the performance. Like Kevin O’Brien’s 50-ball 100 against England; Like that Mitchell Starc six-fer at Eden Park in the 2015 World Cup; Like Kohli’s 82 at the MCG last year.
The numbers are great but these performances are defined more by their audacity.
It’ll be far-fetched and a bit dishonest to put Ravindra’s performance on Thursday in the same league as the ones mentioned above, but let’s just say this: the numbers don’t do justice to Ravindra’s onslaught at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
For as much as his knock was about exuberant strokeplay, it was the experience — of watching him perform wonders — that left you stunned, at times in disbelief.
Here you have a young man, just 23, playing his first ever World Cup game. He is walking out to bat in a position he’s never previously batted in in international cricket, and he is up against the world champions, who have their tails up.
Mind you, he already has some baggage as he walks out to bat, having been taken apart earlier with the ball in hand.
Your expectations are thus tempered.
Moments later, BAM, there he goes, absolutely BLUDGEONING every single English bowler without mercy, all over the park. He can’t NOT find the middle of the bat, and every shot off his willow sounds like Diwali.
The follow-through is getting bigger with every shot, the sound sweeter and louder, and each stroke is better than the previous one. You don’t have time to admire any stroke because within moments he hits another worldie, and off you go again, yelling, “SHOTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!”
You’re not looking at his score, the team’s score or even the target because, honestly, they don’t matter. You’re just having a great time.
Soon, the realization hits you — that you’re witnessing something very, very special.
This was pretty much the complete Rachin Ravindra vs England experience.
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Thursday was only the second time Ravindra batted up the order for the Kiwis, the previous instance coming in the warm-up game against Pakistan last week, where the 23-year-old struck a sizzling 72-ball 97 opening the batting.
However, despite being largely utilized as a bowling all-rounder by the Kiwis, batting up the order is not something new for Ravindra, who predominantly opens the batting for his state side Wellington.
Pocknall, who handed Ravindra his List A Wellington debut in 2019, says that the pair worked extensively on the left-hander’s power game while the duo worked together at Wellington (till the start of the 2022/23 season).
“He has always had a great technique which sets himself up for red ball cricket so we had a big couple of years looking to expand his skills to be able to hit other areas of the ground,” Pocknall, who is currently the head coach of Central Districts, reveals.
“Generating more power was a key focus both from a conditioning perspective but also from a bat speed perspective to get that little bit more out of his shots.”
The work put in has seemed to do wonders. Not too long ago the left-hander was seen as someone better suited to red-ball cricket, but that is no longer the case. Ravindra is now an integral part of New Zealand’s white-ball set-up, thanks to his power game having gone up levels.
He hit 5 sixes on Thursday but also showcased his evolved six-hitting game at Lord’s last month, where batting down the order at No.7 he flayed the English bowlers, amassing 61 off just 48 balls, smashing 4 sixes.
The promise Ravindra showed in that particular knock certainly played a part in the management taking a punt on him up the order first in the warm-up encounter against Pakistan, and then the all-important England clash in Ahmedabad.
Great sports stories often find their magic in the realm of happy accidents. Ravindra would never have been in the New Zealand XI on Thursday had Lockie Ferguson been fully fit, but a late injury to the speedster opened the door for the 23-year-old, who’s now made himself undroppable.
The boy whose first name is half Sachin and half Rahul has just gone full Marnus Labuschagne.
