Hubballi, Feb. 24 -- Dropped once and forced to rebuild his career the hard way, Shubham Pundhir produced a stirring redemption act with a fluent unbeaten 117 as Jammu and Kashmir closed at 284 for two at stumps on Day One of the Ranji Trophy final here on Tuesday, setting the tone for an ambitious 650-plus first-innings push.
Anchoring the innings with composure on a testing red-soil surface, Pundhir credited coach Ajay Sharma's simple but powerful mantra - "watch the ball, not the bowler" - for helping him shut out reputations and focus purely on execution.
"Ajay sir always tells us, don't look at the bowler, look at the ball. Don't see the reputation. If you look at the bowler, the job won't get done. Just react according to the ball,"...