Rising Pune Supergiant’s upswing in the 2017 Indian Premier League (IPL) after an indifferent start can be attributed to contributions from key players like MS Dhoni, Ben Stokes and Steve Smith. However, a relatively unknown Indian domestic player has been churning out consistent scores at the top of the order, playing an equally important part in the team’s rise in the middle stages of the tournament. This right-handed batsman happens to be the first Pune-bred player to play for this franchise. His name is Rahul Tripathi.
Tripathi, 26, is currently the highest run-scorer for RPS this season, with 352 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of over 150. He is still some way behind the table leader David Warner (489 runs), but what has stood out is his consistency. After making only 10 in his IPL debut, Tripathi made six consecutive scores of over 30. He soon achieved his personal best of 93, against Kolkata Knight Riders.
The son of an army Colonel, Tripathi took up cricket seriously when his father – a former state junior cricketer himself, for Uttar Pradesh – got a posting in Pune, after a stint in Srinagar. Tripathi enrolled at the Deccan Gymkhana and while his cricket progressed, so did his studies. He excelled in Maths in particular. “His lowest score in Math is 98,” his father told Firstpost recently. Therefore it wasn’t surprising that he later graduated with a BSc in Mathematics.
Interestingly, Tripathi didn’t start off as an aggressive batsman. A former coach remembers him as a player who was more content batting for long periods. Tripathi was first selected for the Maharashtra senior team in 2010, when he made his one-day debut. He had to wait nearly three more years for his Ranji Trophy debut, scoring 24 batting at No. 7 against Baroda. He made over 500 runs in the 2014-15 Ranji season, when Maharashtra reached the semi-finals.
Tripathi’s most recent Ranji season wasn’t spectacular, scoring 185 runs in 11 games. He made a bigger impact in the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy, scoring 157 runs in three games with a highest score of 95. He wasn’t picked for his state or zone in the domestic Twenty20 tournaments before the IPL, but that didn’t affect his selection for his franchise. The Pune owners decided to invest INR 10 lakhs on him at the player auction in February.
Her batted at No.4 in his first game for RPS, but the team management later decided to promote him as an opening batsman to replace the underperforming Mayank Agarwal. After two 30s, Tripathi scored his first IPL fifty in the match against Sunrisers, setting up the team’s successful chase of 177.
RPS captain Smith said he was impressed with the way Tripathi was hitting the ball before the IPL began and hence decided to use him as an opener. Smith felt an aggressive player like Tripathi would complement a more classical player like Ajinkya Rahane well. The pairing worked in the match against Mumbai Indians, as they added 76, setting up the victory.
Against Knight Riders at Eden Gardens, Tripathi went on a six-hitting spree, smashing seven of them. Three of them came off consecutive deliveries off the left-arm chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav. His innings put Pune on course to their sixth win in seven games. He said after the game that he hit six sixes in an innings twice recently in club cricket .
Tripathi’s contributions have gone a long way in releasing some pressure off the senior players. Having made several starts, Tripathi had been setting himself up for something big, maybe even a maiden IPL century. He very nearly did that, at Eden Gardens.
