“We finally achieved our target and clinched the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy,” says Punjab spinner Mayank Markande.
Punjab finally ended the long wait a couple of months ago when they clinched the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy title after beating Baroda in the final.
Markande had been in top form in the white-ball fixtures for his side and is now aiming to continue the same with the red-ball too. The action will now shift to Ranji Trophy where Punjab will open their campaign against Karnataka in Bengaluru from January 5.
“The preparations for the Ranji Trophy are going well,” says a very confident-looking Markande in a chat with CricketNext.
He picked 12 wickets in 10 IPL games in the 2023 edition, had 12 scalps to his name in 9 SMAT matches and 9 wickets in six Vijay Hazare Trophy fixtures. The right-arm spinner has been in top form in white-ball in the recent past and is aiming to continue that in the Ranji Trophy as well.
“I had a good IPL season so I had the confidence and carried it further as well. As a result, I had a good run in the white-ball tournaments. I had been bowling well since the last year and carried that momentum forward,” says Markande.
‘Team atmosphere is positive’
The title win in the SMAT has given a lot of confidence and positivity to the Punjab side. Mayank lauded the coach and the captain for maintaining a good atmosphere within the side.
“The atmosphere inside is very, very good. Both the captain and the coach have created a very atmosphere within the side. There is a lot of positivity in the unit. We won the T20 tournament (SMAT) recently,” says the spinner.
“Talking about the bonding, it has been very good among the players. We were on the right track since last year. It was just that we were not getting the desired results then but we were performing well,” he adds.
Punjab were consistently falling at the knockouts hurdle and the side was determined to go all the way this season.
“We were losing in quarter-finals, semi-finals, so, we had this thing in mind that we had to cross that hurdle as a team and we did it quite successfully this time,” says Markande.
‘Focusing on my own batting’
In an earlier conversation with CricketNext, the 26-year-old informed that he had been asked to focus on his batting as well. The right-hander has started to put in more effort on his batting as well and wants to take one session at a time in the longer format.
“Yes, I’m concentrating on my batting right now. There’s no specific role as such as far as my batting is concerned and it’s more about playing according to the situation. My role would be more about batting according to the situation. In red-ball cricket, you have to play session by session,” he concludes.
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