“Aap ek taraf khade rehna, main shots ke liye jaunga. [You remain firm at one end, I’ll try and go for my shots.]”
Sharandeep Singh fondly recounts his conversation with opening partner Shikhar Mohan at the end of the third day’s play during Jharkhand‘s Ranji Trophy game against Odisha.
With a place in the quarter-finals on the line, Jharkhand were on a sticky wicket, having conceded a first-innings lead on a Jamshedpur surface that was spitting and bouncing. Odisha had ended day three on 202 for 8, having secured a lead of 221. They were bowled out for 226 on the fourth morning and a 246-run target wasn’t going to be easy. But Sharandeep and Mohan – one in his second Ranji Trophy season and the other in his first – had their plans chalked out.
“Build the target in terms of twenty-run blocks, record a 60-70 run stand and then move ahead.”
The plan worked. Mohan tried to be the aggressor and Sharandeep the accumulator, and they set a solid foundation for the rest of the batting unit to chase down the target in the final session and secure Jharkhand a quarter-final spot for the first time since the 2022-23 season.
It’s been the theme of this fire-and-ice opening partnership this season. Sharandeep and Mohan have aggregated 473 runs for the first wicket in 10 innings, the fifth-highest for any opening pair in this edition of the tournament. While this is their first time opening in senior cricket, they have done so several times at the Under-19 and Under-23 levels.
“We have been very good friends since our Under-16 days,” Mohan says about Sharandeep. “We were even roommates earlier. He made his Ranji debut last year; I made my debut this year. He shared his experience about his Ranji season, how he went about things. That gave me a lot of clarity when I came into the senior team.”
The understanding is quite evident, even though their batting styles are chalk and cheese. Mohan, 20, is more flamboyant, and likes to take on the bowlers. Shardandeep, 23, has the old-school approach of tiring out bowlers. What keeps the two in good stead are the honest conversations about each other’s game.
“We are very frank with each other,” Mohan says. “I can literally tell him anything. I am younger than him, so he sometimes scolds me if I play a bad shot. We have good communication and that’s showing in the opening partnerships that we are having.”
Sharandeep agrees with Mohan’s sentiments. “Honesty is extremely important in cricket. Sometimes you get carried away by the flow of your innings and don’t even realise your mistake. Then the person at the other end tries to bring you back on track. If one of us makes a mistake, we try to correct it together. We spend the whole day together anyway, so the bonding between us is very strong.”
Shikhar Mohan shows off his Jharkhand cap Shikhar Mohan
Hailing from Ranchi, Mohan was fast-tracked into the senior Jharkhand setup after two sensational seasons at the Under-23 level. He finished the 2023-24 Col CK Nayudu Trophy with 623 runs in nine innings at 77.88 with three fifties and two centuries, and followed it up with 887 runs in 13 innings the next season at 73.92 – the third-highest in India. And he’s continued that run of form for the senior team.
In ten innings at the Ranji Trophy, Mohan has scored 607 runs at 67.44, which includes three fifties and two centuries, and a high of 207 against Nagaland. Mohan describes that double-ton as his favourite knock because it came in his homeground with his family and friends in attendance.
“Right from junior cricket, I have wanted to play Ranji Trophy and my pathway was scoring runs,” Mohan says. “The two U-23 seasons were very good and I have just carried forward that form. I didn’t experiment much, did not put myself under much pressure and just tried to stay in the present. I know it is easy to say but I just wanted to treat senior cricket the same way I did my junior cricket.”
It’s not just in the Ranji Trophy that Mohan has made a mark. He also made his Vijay Hazare Trophy this season, finishing as Jharkhand’s highest run-getter with 391 runs in seven innings at 55.85. And now that he’s found a place in two formats, Mohan’s next target is T20 cricket.
Shikhar Mohan hits the ball towards cover Shikhar Mohan
Mohan was called up for an IPL trial by Mumbai Indians two years ago and impressed with a half-century in a practice game. While that did not translate into a call-up, he wants to work on his power game to further his bid to make the Jharkhand T20 setup and gradually find a way into the IPL.
“Once the Ranji season is done, I will focus on range hitting and power hitting,” Mohan, who is a big MS Dhoni fan, says. “I have played Ranji and one-dayers, but I didn’t play T20 this year. Now I want to be so good that I can play in all three formats. I know that my power hitting, range hitting and bat swing should be good. I want to work on that.”
It is a slightly different story for Sharandeep, who has grown up on a diet of red-ball cricket in Jamshedpur. Labelled ‘junior Pujara’ in the Jharkhand domestic circles, the 23-year-old has always been fascinated by the unpredictability of Test cricket and while he wants to excel in white-ball cricket, his primary aim is to wear the India whites.
Sharandeep Singh celebrates his century Tanuj / © ESPNcricinfo Ltd
“I have always loved red ball cricket,” Sharandeep says. “The ball swinging, the turn on the fifth day, all of it fascinates me. It feels like Test cricket is a real test, where your skill and mindset are examined. That is why I want to play red-ball cricket. It’s not that I don’t want to play white-ball cricket, but my dream is to first wear the India jersey in red-ball cricket.”
Sharandeep made his way through the Jharkhand age-group setup and made his Ranji debut in the 2024-25 season. He managed just 14 in his first innings, but struck five successive fifties in his next five games to cement a position in the Jharkhand top-order.
Sharandeep’s footwork against the spinners immediately stands out. He loves getting to the pitch of the ball and is an excellent reader of lengths. It was noticeable during his fourth-innings half-century against Odisha, where he gave a masterclass on how to handle spin on a tricky fourth-day surface.
“When I was younger and hadn’t played state cricket yet, I would ask the spinners to bowl into the rough and I would practice hours on end,” Sharandeep says. “I would constantly try to reach the pitch of the ball and understand how and where it would turn. That’s where I learned to step out against spin. Along with that, I also tried to play attacking shots against spinners. Now it has become a habit.
“This has been my pattern. I wait for bad balls. My focus is on staying patient until those loose deliveries come. It doesn’t bother me how many dot balls I face.”
Cheteshwar Pujara speaks to Manishi and Sharandeep Singh ESPNcricinfo
His excellence against spin was noticed by Cheteshwar Pujara last season during a Jharkhand-Saurashtra game in Ranchi, where Sharandeep scored 73 in each innings. He had a brief conversation with Pujara after the game. “I asked him how he plays spin so well, especially how he uses his feet and steps out,” Sharandeep said. “He explained the drills he follows and the things he focuses on. He told me that he waits for bad balls and tries not to get out while defending. I try to follow that during practice.”
Sharandeep scored 417 runs in nine innings in his debut season, which included six fifties but no centuries. It was frustrating for the youngster who kept getting out in the 60s and 70s, but he stuck to his method.
“There was some frustration about why I wasn’t converting those fifties into hundreds. A lot of people gave advice, but I trusted my process,” Sharandeep said. “I felt that if the same process could take me to sixty or seventy, it could also take me to a hundred. I worked on my mindset. After reaching seventy, I focused a little more and stayed mentally stronger.”
It worked as Sharandeep brought up his maiden first-class century against Andhra in his home ground this season and followed it up with 139 in the next game against UP. Earlier in the season, he was also part of the East Zone squad at the Duleep Trophy and while he only managed 6 in the only innings he played, Sharandeep got a chance to share the changeroom with the likes of Mohammed Shami, Riyan Parag and Abhimanyu Easwaran.
Sharandeep, who averages close to 50 in first-class cricket, has become a fairly settled member of Jharkhand’s red-ball side but he’s yet to make a mark in the white-ball squads, which is his next goal.
“It’s not that I don’t want to play T20 cricket. I want to play all three formats,” he says. “I am doing that, trying to increase my range of shots, and I am sure I can also cement my position in white-ball cricket.”
In Sharandeep and Mohan, Jharkhand have found two rare gems who complement each other and who, with age on their side, can serve the state for a long time. They have already ticked the Ranji Trophy box together. Now they hope to conquer the white-ball setup too.