Who is Baba Indrajith?
A Tamil Nadu middle-order batter, Indrajith is also a handy wicket-keeper. Having made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu aged 18, he has gone on to rise as a dependable batter as well as a captain at various ages.
Born 12 minutes, Indrajith has a younger twin, Baba Aparajith, who tasted Under-19 World Cup glory in Australia in 2012 and has also been a part of Chennai Super Kings and Rising Pune Supergiants without playing a game. The duo also shared a 207-run partnership in a domestic game against Chhattisgarh and became the first set of twins to score hundreds in the same game for the same team in Indian domestic cricket.
While IPL 2022 is Indrajith’s first IPL stint, he has spent nine years as a professional cricketer developing his own niche. Renowned for his red-ball batting skills, he currently averages 53.35 in first-class cricket and 99 alone in the last three Ranji trophy fixtures he featured in after the 2022 auction.
Domestic cricket and a turnaround in approach
Disappointed at missing out on Under-19 World Cups, Indrajith has quietly gone about doing his work behind-the-scenes to rack up a mountain of runs. In fact, no Indian batter has averaged as much as Indrajith’s 66.10 since 2016 with only three players in the world averaging higher.
Last year, in a bid to expand his game, he spent the off-season with RX Muralidhar, a Bengaluru-based coach who has worked previously to transform Mayank Agrawal’s game. Since then, Indrajith has added a variety of shots in his arsenal and has adapted an attacking mindset while retaining his maxim of playing every ball on its merit.
He played a crucial role in a star-studded Tamil Nadu side that featured the likes of Vijay Shankar, Dinesh Karthik and Washington Sundar. Indrajith struck four half-centuries including an 80 in the Vijay Hazare trophy final in December 2021, stitching an important 202-run partnership with Karthik in the process.
Trial with KKR and IPL Auction
Merely days after Tamil Nadu finished as the Vijay Hazare trophy runners-up, Indrajith was called up to attend a trial with the franchise after impressing the talent scouts.
After an attacking 25-ball 60 in a trial game in Mumbai with his sharp wicket-keeping skills, having also supplied videos of his keeping from his Tamil Nadu Premier League stints, Kolkata Knight Riders snapped him up at his base price of INR 20 Lakhs at the auction in February.
