Multitasking doesn’t burden him and the pressure of captaincy doesn’t make him curb his flamboyant batting style. The 21-year-old Kumar Kushagra is a modern cricketer who embraces pressure rather than letting it get to him.

Kushagra has been in red-hot form this season with the bat for Jharkhand in both Ranji Trophy and limited overs cricket. He played an influential role in Jharkhand’s maiden triumph in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (SMAT) T20 tournament with 422 runs — four fifties — at a strike rate of 161.88.

Kushagra has carried that rich vein of form into the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT), stroking a fine 105 against Pondicherry after his quick-fire 63 against Karnataka in the opener.

With Ishan Kishan’s availability limited to a few matches, Kushagra has also taken over the responsibility as the senior player and astutely led the side.

“I enjoy the responsibility. The association had sounded out to me that I will be captaining the side at various stages during this season. I was mentally prepared for it. Captaincy is about managing the players better, giving them confidence and making them perform to the desired level. Multitasking has become a norm in cricket these days so it’s not a big deal,” he said.

“Well I had worked on my game during the off-season. Yes it is challenging to switch between formats, but as a professional cricketer you should be able to adjust and adapt. I practised a lot of range-hitting with our coach Ratan Kumar. Key to success in white-ball cricket is pacing the innings and changing your game according to the situation. So far it has been a good season for me personally and for our team,” said Kushagra.

“The SMAT triumph was the coming of age of Jharkhand cricket. We had a few heroes in batting and bowling and it was an all-round performance. We are not under any sort of pressure in the VHT. We are taking it match by match and I am happy with how we are playing right now. I’m not thinking too much about the future, but definitely want to make a mark in IPl in the coming season,” he added.