A batter who wanted to watch, not be watched
Aman Mokhade wanted to get close enough to watch Virat Kohli prepare. He was a young batter, not a regular bowler, but he asked for a place among the net bowlers when international cricket came to Nagpur. The opportunity was a way into a world he hoped one day to belong to.
In his conversation with Cric Insights, Aman corrects an easy assumption about that memory. He did not bowl to Kohli or have a conversation with him. Kohli used the sidearm; Aman watched from a neighbouring net. The energy and intensity were the lesson. Sometimes an important step in a young player’s journey is simply seeing the standard he wants to reach.
Years later, after a prolific domestic campaign, that curiosity remains. A hundred does not end his search for improvement. Away from the ground, he thinks about where another option or a better decision might come from. The runs have made more people notice him; his attention still returns to the work.
The game was visible from his home
The first ground was close enough to see from his house. Older boys who played there noticed his cricket and suggested to his mother that he should join a club. She spoke to his father, and Aman began club cricket at around eight or nine.
His father had played when he was young but had been unable to take cricket further financially. He understood that there was a path from club cricket to higher levels. That understanding mattered in a family with a strong academic background: cricket could be taken seriously without pretending the journey would be simple.
Aman continued studying alongside the game. He recalls scoring 90 per cent in Class 10. Later, a long Under-16 campaign made that balance harder, but a successful season also gave his family greater confidence in his cricket. At the time of the interview, he said a couple of postgraduate papers were still left.
Learning to change without losing his base
Aman credits his first coach, Nitin Kanere, with teaching him the basics. Umesh Patwal became an important guide from his Under-16 years, someone he could discuss batting with because the coach knew his game over time. He also values what senior players and coaches shared with him as he moved towards senior cricket.
Chandrakant Pandit’s encouragement during his Under-19 days helped make the next level feel within reach. Wasim Jaffer offered advice after watching matches. For a young batter, hearing an experienced cricketing figure say he was capable added weight to a belief he already carried.
The technical challenge was to keep growing. Opponents had footage and plans; remaining predictable was risky. Aman worked on areas he had used less and tried to expand his scoring range. He wanted a sound batting base that could travel between formats, because the domestic calendar often offered only a few days to switch.
The patience behind his favourite hundred
Asked to choose a favourite among his Vijay Hazare hundreds, Aman picked the innings against Karnataka. An early wicket, a challenging new ball and experienced opponents made the responsibility feel different. The innings mattered to him because it required a response to pressure rather than just a continuation of good form.
He had watched the opposition bat and noticed how difficult scoring could be while the ball was new. That observation shaped his plan: trust proper cricketing strokes, get through the demanding period and leave time to make up the scoring later. His confidence was not that every ball could be attacked, but that he could take the game deep enough to influence the chase.
Acceleration, in his telling, depends on the surface, the bowler and the moment. Fifty overs give a batter room to absorb a difficult spell. When he felt his timing and the situation allowed it, he could widen his options. The thinking behind the runs was as important as the shots.
Friends who had grown into a team
Vidarbha’s dressing room offered another kind of strength. Aman spoke about teammates he had known since age-group cricket, including Yash Rathod, Harsh Dubey, Atharva Taide and Nachiket Bhute. They could discuss the smallest details and support one another through a lean spell.
He remembers the group retaining belief even after an early defeat in the Vijay Hazare campaign. The response was to plan better rather than decide that qualification or the title had gone. He describes Yash as someone who could sense the room and celebrate a teammate’s success even when his own game had not gone well.
That companionship does not replace skill. Aman stresses the maturity and experience within the side. But it gives the work a shared purpose: the runs are his, while the campaign belongs to the team.
The ambition stays; the next game comes first
Aman’s ambition is to play for India and do well for the country. He does not describe a promised selection or a guaranteed next step. At the time of this conversation, IPL remained an opportunity he hoped to earn, not a completed chapter.
His way of handling that distance is to prepare for one game at a time. More attention has brought gratitude rather than an obligation to manufacture another extraordinary season. The boy who wanted to stand beside an international net still wants to learn; now he has a growing body of work to build on.
