After 19 seasons, Maharashtra’s Ankit Bawne is still alive and chasing India dream

He swept Services left-arm spinner Arjun Sharma for a boundary, took off his helmet and let out a roar. Ankit Bawne pointed his bat towards someone in the dressing room, celebrating his hundred with an intensity reminiscent of Virat Kohli. It was the opening day of the new Ranji Trophy season, and the 33-year-old Maharashtra batter had just scored his 25th first-class century. He had celebrated hundreds before, but this one meant a little more. After a season that left him questioning his place in the game, Bawne had something to prove, if only to himself.

The weather was pleasant at the Air Force Cricket Ground in Palam, Delhi, but the conditions were hardly conducive to free-flowing batting. The ball kept low, the pitch offered uneven bounce and Services’ experienced bowlers made life difficult for Maharashtra. Every ten minutes, planes taking off from the nearby Indira Gandhi International Airport flew over the ground, their engines drowning out the sounds of cricket. Through it all, Bawne remained composed, collecting singles and resisting the temptation to force the pace. When he finally reached three figures, however, the emotions came pouring out.

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Maharashtra finished the opening day at 287 for five, with Bawne contributing an unbeaten 105. Prithvi Shaw had provided the early impetus with a brisk 70, but it was Bawne who ensured Maharashtra had a strong platform despite the difficult conditions. For a batter who had spent nearly two decades making his way through the domestic circuit, this was more than a good start to a new season. It was a reminder of why he had stayed.

“Emotions are definitely there,” Bawne said after the day’s play.

“Firstly, it’s a Ranji hundred, which is very special. This is my 25th hundred, so it’s even more special for me. Also, my previous season didn’t go too well. I think I didn’t even score around 100 total runs. So there was a hunger in me to prove a point, not for the team or anyone else, but to prove a point to myself. Why do I belong to this level? Am I good enough?”

For someone who had accumulated 8,466 runs in 131 first-class matches before the new season, the questions might seem surprising. Bawne had scored heavily across nearly 20 years of senior cricket, played in the Duleep Trophy and Irani Cup, and led India A before the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet a difficult season had unsettled him in a way that years of success had not prepared him for.

Last season, Bawne captained Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy. This time, he began the campaign without the captaincy, with Shaw leading the side in Ruturaj Gaikwad’s absence as the latter was away on India A duty. The change in leadership was not the only difference. Bawne had endured the worst season of his career, scoring just 72 runs in seven matches. His first-class average, which had remained around the 50 mark, slipped below it. For a batter accustomed to finding answers in the middle, the sudden inability to score was difficult to comprehend.

“Lessons are definitely there,” he said. “In cricket, if you don’t do well one year, you are on the line the next year. You have to prove yourself. It’s not like because I’ve played well for 18 years, I will play for 30 years. Every day you have to come and do well.”

Bawne had been particularly hard on himself. He knew that the opportunity to bat in first-class cricket was precious, especially for an opener who could not afford to let a handful of innings slip away. He had no explanation for the slump, but he knew that dwelling on it would not help. Instead, he looked back at what he had already achieved and tried to convince himself that he could do it again.

“I thought, ‘I have scored 24 hundreds before, fifty 50s, so why can’t I do it now?’” he said. “I practised hard with a lot of mental toughness so that not a single move would go wrong this time.”

An injury to his elbow in June forced him away from the routine of competitive cricket. In retrospect, the break offered him something he badly needed: time to reset. There were no match-day pressures, no immediate demands to produce a score and no distractions from the task of putting his batting back in order. Bawne returned to the nets in Pune, booking grounds and taking bowlers along with him. He worked without a personal batting coach, relying on his experience and the lessons he had absorbed over the years.

Over the two months leading up to the new season, he estimates that he faced between 20,000 and 25,000 balls in practice. He wanted to correct the technical and tactical errors that had crept into his game, prepare for different types of bowling and ensure he was ready for the demands of the Ranji Trophy.

“I just wanted to play and fix the technical or game-plan errors I made last year,” he said. “With my experience and temperament, if I play, I score runs. I just didn’t want to repeat last year’s mistakes when I was leading the side and caught in tricky situations with just five innings. This time I am much more relaxed and in my zone.”

MY BAT WAS COVERED IN DUST: BAWNE

There was a specific target guiding that preparation. Bawne wanted to score a hundred in Maharashtra’s first match of the new season. It was a modest-sounding ambition for someone with 24 first-class centuries to his name, but it carried the weight of an entire season’s frustration. He visualised the innings night after night, trying to leave nothing to chance.

“My bat was covered in dust last year because I didn’t play enough, but this year I made sure I left nothing to chance,” he said.

“Scoring a point and getting a hundred here gives you that distinct alive feeling. This is what I’ve practised for over the last 60–70 days, visualising every single night.”

That sense of being alive in the game was central to his celebration at Palam. Asked whether pointing his bat towards the dressing room was intended as a message to his critics, Bawne dismissed the suggestion. He had nothing to prove to anyone else, he insisted. The celebration was about the satisfaction of having prepared for a challenge and come through it.

“It was just that I am still alive, playing and performing,” he said. “There was no arrogant or rude message behind it.”

‘EVEN VIRAT KOHLI HAS HAD SLUMPS’

Bawne has been around long enough to understand how quickly the domestic game can move on. He made his first-class debut for Maharashtra shortly after turning 15, and the association’s faith in him at such a young age remains something he values. His parents, too, have supported him through a career that has frequently kept him away from home. His father, a retired irrigation civil engineer, and his mother, a homemaker, have watched him navigate the highs and lows of professional cricket. An only child, Bawne credits them with helping him keep perspective when his own expectations threaten to overwhelm him.

Even during last season’s struggles, his father resisted the urge to criticise.

“Papa didn’t say anything harsh,” Bawne recalled.

“He just said, ‘It’s okay, Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli also had a slump, even Sachin Tendulkar had a slump, so don’t overthink it.’ I tend to take things harshly on myself, but their support keeps me calm.”

The advice was simple, but it helped. Bawne returned to the basics: work hard, stay dedicated and keep things uncomplicated.

Some of those principles had also come from his time in the India A set-up, where he spent two years around Rahul Dravid in 2017 and 2018. Bawne remembers Dravid as a person who carried himself without arrogance and was always willing to share his experience. Their conversations reinforced the value of batting according to the demands of the format rather than chasing the tempo of the shorter game, especially in the day and age of lucrative Indian Premier League contracts.

“His constant advice was just to stay at the crease, stand firm and score runs,” Bawne said.

“Whenever I felt like hitting shots or rushing because of IPL pressures, he would instil the value of format-wise situational batting.”

STILL DREAMING OF INDIA CALL-UP

The India call-up, though, remains the one milestone missing from Bawne’s career. It is a familiar frustration in a country where competition for places is relentless, and where even years of prolific domestic batting cannot guarantee an opportunity at the highest level.

Bawne has never hidden his ambition, but he has learnt to separate the goal from the decisions that are beyond his control.

“100 per cent, yes,” he said when asked whether he still dreams of playing for India.

“If I score 1,000, 1,200, 1,400 runs, why won’t I be selected? There is no logic otherwise. Even if I score 900 runs and hit a double hundred in the Ranji final to win the trophy for Maharashtra, you have to think positively.”

He knows that selection is not in his hands. What he can control is the work he puts in and the runs he scores. After nearly 20 years in the domestic game, he is not prepared to let disappointment dictate how he approaches the next innings.

“If I keep thinking negatively that I’ve been playing for 20 years and India hasn’t called me, my mind is negative even before I play,” he said. “I am very happy where I am, but my goal remains to score big runs and help knock the doors down for the team.”

There is also the challenge of sustaining motivation at an age when many cricketers begin to consider life beyond the game. Bawne, however, sees the Ranji Trophy as a test that continues to demand everything from him. The away games, in particular, require adaptability, preparation and patience, often on unfamiliar pitches and against opponents who know their home conditions inside out. For him, that challenge remains compelling.

“If 42-year-old players can win the Ranji Trophy last year, why can’t I at 34?” he asked. “I have a lot more to achieve.”

The hundred against Services does not guarantee that the season will unfold as Bawne hopes. One innings cannot erase the disappointment of the previous campaign, nor can it settle the question of whether he will ever play for India. But it has given him a beginning he had spent two months preparing for, and the reassurance that he can still produce the innings he expects of himself.

On a difficult pitch in Palam, with the noise of aircraft cutting across the ground, Bawne stayed patient, worked the ball around and waited for his moment. When the hundred came, the celebration was unrestrained. After a season in which he had questioned whether he still belonged, he had answered the question in the most familiar way available to him: by making runs.

– Ends