Hyderabad Ranji captain Teja sharpens his horns

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Just six years into his cricketing career, Hyderabad Ranji captain D.B. Ravi Teja is already scarred by battle.

He has experienced the exhilaration of dazzling heights as well as the anguish of woeful lows.
From being a part of a star-studded, under-performing Deccan Chargers outfit in the inaugural edition of the IPL to winning the glitzy glamorous league a year later, from being a part of the the Hyderabad team that plunged from Ranji Trophy Elite Division to Plate to leading the side back into the top tier of Indian domestic cricket, he has seen it and done it all.

His exploits with Hyderabad are especially noteworthy as he was thrust into captaincy in the wake of a shameful debacle against Rajasthan in 2010.

“I was a fresh captain, so it took me a little time getting used to. By the 2011-12 season, I got the hang of it... the team bonded well and we were able to achieve what we had set out to at the beginning of the season,” Ravi said.

Though he had to bear immense responsibility as the captain of Hyderabad, a team that was constantly under fire for every minor glitch, Ravi more than held his own.

“I had a little captaincy experience as I led a few junior sides. So while it wasn’t a totally new experience for me, it was certainly a steep learning curve.”

Though his form with the bat in the Ranji tournament was lukewarm — he scored 270 runs from nine innings at 33.75 — he turned it around splendidly to end up as Hyderabad’s top run-getter (361 runs at 72.20, including two centuries) in the subsequent Vijay Hazare limited-overs tournament. “I never really thought I under-performed in the four-day matches,” Ravi asserted.

“I was satisfied with how I was playing. But yes, I could certainly have performed better, which I did in the limited-overs format.”

Ravi is now set to begin his fifth season with the Deccan Chargers and according to the 24-year-old, the former Champions have a bright chance of lifting the trophy this time.

“The very first season of the IPL, we didn’t do so well. That was because we had a new team and it took us sometime to get the group dynamics in place. The next season, we completely turned it around.“

I think something similar will happen this year. We didn’t do as well as we could have last year because there was something lacking, but this year will see a remarkable performance from the Chargers for sure,” Ravi predicted.

As far as the Chargers are concerned, Ravi says he looks to Daniel Christian for inspiration. “He is a very impressive player. He has been performing extremely well ever since he got picked for Australia. I gain a lot of inspiration from him,” Ravi said.