"I wasn't thinking about the record at all" - Darshan Nalkande opens up on historic achievement against Karnataka

Abhimanyu Mithun, Andre Russell, Al-Amin Hossain, Curtis Campher, Jim Allenby, Lasith Malinga, Rashid Khan, Shaheen Afridi, and now Darshan Nalkande. The only bowlers in the history of T20 cricket to pick four wickets in four successive balls.

At first, this seems a list of misfits, considering a few of these have gone on to be bonafide T20 legends (hello Malinga, Rashid and Russell), while others seem en route to doing so (Shaheen, you listening?).

Among this bunch, though, there are also a few consistent domestic performers – performers who don’t get as much credit as they deserve. But still keep finding the motivation and the wherewithal to produce displays that makes their team win.

Darshan Nalkande, over the past couple of years, has been a bankable bowler for Vidarbha across formats. In T20 cricket, however, his stock rises considerably. Not just because he has a much better record in the shortest format, but also because his skill-set seems ideal for T20s.

On first look, Darshan Nalkande doesn’t strike you as someone who would instill fear in the batters. He doesn’t have express pace and lacks the kind of oomph the likes of Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi and Umran Malik have portrayed lately.

Darshan Nalkande picked up 4 wickets in 4 balls against Karnataka

What he does have though, is an exceptional cricketing brain – a brain that only concentrates on the next ball that he has to bowl and the plans that he needs to execute. So much so that when Darshan Nalkande accomplished something that has only been achieved once previously in Indian domestic cricket (four wickets in four balls against Karnataka), it wasn’t even on his mind.

“I wasn’t thinking about the record at all. I wanted to execute my plans and give away as few runs as possible. Every ball I was thinking about the field I had and how I had to bowl to it. The only focus was to bowl to the batter on strike and what ball I needed to bowl. I was also taking it one ball at a time. I was only concentrating on the game situation,” Darshan Nalkande told Sportskeeda in an exclusive chat.

For a lot of cricket-watching folks in India, this display came as a surprise. Plenty even felt that this was a flash in the pan. The truth, though, is that Darshan Nalkande has been picking up truckloads of wickets ever since making his senior T20 debut in 2019.

As far as statistics are concerned, he has already scalped 43 wickets in 22 innings at a staggering average and strike rate of 12.76 and 10.5, respectively. An economy rate of 7.25 isn’t too shabby either.

Darshan Nalkande has also been among the top 10 wicket-takers in each of the past three Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy editions. He has been the fourth highest wicket-taker in the past two installments.

Usually, such numbers would catapult an Indian fast bowler into the IPL echelons. Darshan Nalkande, unfortunately, has had to be content with a spot on the Punjab Kings bench – something he would’ve liked to change had it been in his control. But a stint he looks back at glowingly.

“When you play with such big cricketers [at Punjab Kings], you obviously get to learn a lot. Just by being with them, you get to learn more about their cricketing sense, tactics and other things. I chatted a lot with Mohammed Shami bhai and Rahul bhai,” the pacer said.

“They used to tell me how to improve my game. Such conversations give a lot of confidence when you come back to play domestic cricket and I hope my performances [for Vidarbha] have shown that as well,” Darshan Nalkande elaborated.

Darshan Nalkande represented the Punjab Kings in IPL 2021 (Credits: Darshan Nalkande Instagram)

Over the past few years, Vidarbha have carved a niche for themselves in the domestic circuit. In 2017-18 and 2018-19, they became one of very few teams to defend both the Ranji Trophy and the Irani Trophy titles. Throughout those successes, Vidarbha didn’t rely on a particular individual to bail them out.

Instead, they depended on a magnificent core, which comprised of the likes of Aditya Sarwate, Akshay Wadkar, Akshay Wakhare, Ganesh Satish, Faiz Fazal and Wasim Jaffer. In essence, Vidarbha emphasized that the collective can be much greater than the sum of its parts – something that continued in the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy too.

Interestingly, a lot of these cricketers have played plenty of cricket together – largely owing to the Residential Academy the Vidarbha Cricket Association had put in place years ago.

Akshay Karnewar, Atharva Taide, Jitesh Sharma and Yash Thakur – each of whom had wonderful Syed Musthaq Ali Trophy campaigns, have spent time at the establishment and have subsequently, honed their skills.

Darshan Nalkande, who is also a product of the academy, shed light on how the facilities and the coaches improve each individual. At the same time, he opined that the exposure of playing as a group keeps them well-knitted for whatever pressure situations that may arise in national tournaments.

Before coming to the Residential Academy, though, Darshan Nalkande rose through the ranks in the Akola cricket circuit – starting off at the tender age of 7 years. At that juncture, he spent a significant chunk of his time watching cricket and of course, idolizing MS Dhoni – an inspiration for a billion people (at least).

“I watched a lot of cricket along with playing. Cricket has been my life since a very early age. From when I started watching, I like MS Dhoni because of his aura. He is an inspiration for everyone and that is the same for me as well,” the fast bowler told Sportskeeda.

Thus, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Darshan Nalkande likes to follow the process and doesn’t worry too much about things that are beyond his control. In fact, that is exactly what he did even when he was on the brink of history.

As far as his achievements going unnoticed are concerned, he isn’t fretting over it too much. Deep inside, he knows that he is doing everything he can for Vidarbha and everything humanly possible to become as good a cricketer as he can become.

Is the IPL Auction on his mind then? Definitely not.

“Lot of time before the IPL auction [chuckles]. I don’t like to think too far ahead. There are a lot of tournaments before the auction and I want to concentrate on doing well in those, Darshan Nalkande quipped.

In the past few years, there haven’t been many domestic teams that have been as consistent as Vidarbha. While a white-ball trophy is yet to adorn their journey, their rise has been remarkable.

Unfortunately, these fabulous team performances haven’t coincided with their top players getting regular India A gigs, let alone a mention in conversations around the Indian cricket team. Few have earned call-ups intermittently but nothing to suggest that they feature in any of these sides’ long-term plans.

However, if Darshan Nalkande keeps performing the way he does, you feel that he might be able to break this barrier. And, of course, find an IPL team that nurtures his talent and optimizes it.

As for now, Darshan Nalkande is happy doing what he does – winning matches for Vidarbha in the domestic circuit. In fact, Darshan Nalkande is so engrossed in achieving a singular objective that even records – such as the one he conquered against Karnataka, barely evoke an unnecessarily extra thought.

That alone tells you a lot about Darshan Nalkande's character and why he could be someone to look out for in the near future.