TNPL was a new experience as the crowd was different, says Vineeth

V.K. Vineeth didn’t feature in Tamil Nadu’s under-14 or under-16 teams.

But he made the Vinoo Mankad and Cooch Behar Trophy squads and, last season, emerged as the Vinoo Mankad Trophy’s top run-scorer with 488 runs.

Then came the High Performance Camp at CoE, followed by a tour of Sri Lanka with India u-19, where he scored a hundred in a youth ODI.

Vineeth is part of India u-19’s series against Australia. On Monday, he scored a gritty 87 as India sealed the series.

His story began in Chennai, where he started playing cricket at seven. His father, a Southern Railway RPF employee, introduced him to the game. His elder brother, K. Veeraviswa, who played Tamil Nadu u-19, became another influence.

The TNPL, however, gave him his first taste of a crowd. “When I went on to play the TNPL for the Dindigul Dragons this year, it was a whole new experience because the crowd was different. So playing in front of a crowd and under the lights for the first time was unbelievable,” Vineeth told The Hindu.

He initially carried water, but mentor R. Ashwin, B. Indrajith and Sandeep Warrier helped him settle. “They said whether the crowd comes or not, we are going to play cricket. That is our main part. The crowd is just an add-on.”

Vineeth featured in three games for the Dindigul Dragons, scoring 82 runs.

A Virat Kohli fan, Vineeth has learnt to live with missed milestones. “I don’t try to hide my mistakes. I try to understand what I have to improve and what I can take from the learnings,” the 18-year-old said.

Away from cricket, he listens to songs and writes a diary. “The game is over, the day is over,” he said, adding: “The next day, we have to start afresh.”

Match starts at 9 a.m.