It's been nearly 17 years since Michael Vaughan turned up for a competitive game of cricket. Yet, Nehal Wadhera still remembers where the English batter's hands were placed when he played a cover drive. As an eight-year-old while scrolling through YouTube videos of the former England captain, he would pause the video, take a screenshot of the drive and try to emulate that in front of a mirror.

All that pain was not so that he could middle the ball, but only to look good in front of the onlookers and leave them impressed by the beauty of his cricket, and earn their praise just like the commentators gushed over Vaughan's drive.

If you were surprised by Wadhera's offbeat choice, he would replicate the same drill with Sachin Tendulkar's straight drive. That was his self-learning initiation into cricket, a sport no other member of his academically-inclined family indulged in.

Wadhera is a cricketer still in the process of becoming.

At 25, that self-learning drive for him has now reached more ambitious levels. He is rolling his arm over in the nets, convinced that he is good enough to play in any team - IPL or state - as an all-rounder who can bowl both legspin and offspin.

It's quite an optimistic claim by a player who has barely bowled 14 overs in first-class cricket and 8 overs in all of his 62 T20s. He's convinced that it's a skill that is rarely ever summoned for service. "Main to humesha bolta rehta hoon mujhe bowling do, but humari Punjab team bhi aisi hai - sab bowlers bhare pade hai [I always ask to bowl but our Punjab team is full of bowlers]."

One of the important backers of his frustration is Sairaj Bahutule, the bowling coach of Punjab Kings, who has seen him bowl up close in the nets. "My coaches tell me - the way you bowl, we have trust in you, we know that if you get a chance, you will deliver. Sairaj Sir has told me that whenever you get an opportunity, you should chip in with one or two overs. When that goes well, you never know how chances come up, and suddenly you will be bowling three or four overs in a match."

That's his word of assurance and validation for a skill he had been honing since his days in junior cricket.

It's interesting how so much of the conversation had steered towards his bowling till that point, a facet that was of little use when Punjab Kings bid INR 4.20 Crore for him at the auctions, or one that even finds him a place in the star-studded Punjab side. But it's also the crutch that he knows makes his prospects better as a cricketer, the one aspect of his game that isn't seen and that hasn't got an opportunity to be showcased, barring that odd game against Bengal when Punjab were defending 310 in a T20 contest.

Wadhera is one of India's most promising left-handed middle-order batters, and a vital cog in the Punjab Kings line-up in their quest for their maiden IPL title. The latest version of T20 cricket demands that specific skillset from a batter, to counter a specific challenge at a specific period in the game - primarily, legspin and left-arm spin bashing. Wadhera plays that key role and more. Last IPL season he had outscored every other player in that role. 369 runs at a strike rate of 145.84, significantly better than Shivam Dube - who was next on that list, but striking at only 132.22.

For that very role, he has competitors. Most IPL teams have one Indian left-hander in the middle order to be the match-up option - Tilak Varma for Mumbai Indians, Dube for Chennai Super Kings, Rishabh Pant for Lucknow Super Giants, Washington Sundar for Gujarat Titans, Devdutt Padikkal for RCB, Rinku Singh for Kolkata Knight Riders. The competition for that spot in the national team is stiff, and to rise above that challenge would require Wadhera to showcase every bit of his skill, and the stretches of potential, just like the rest do.

Wadhera admits to the competition at stake, but adds, "If you have to play for India, you have to make a place for yourself - that competition was there earlier, it's there now, and it will always be there. If you start worrying about it, then it'll get difficult."

To make that step up, Wadhera is leaving nothing to chance. Last year, after the IPL season, he left home and moved to Delhi to get access to better training. He has hired a celebrity nutritionist, and claims to be a fitter and faster version of himself this year after having shed four kilograms.

His rationale is simple: to give himself the best chance for India - across all three formats - he has to make himself the best version of the cricketer he can be, much of what goes beyond his batting. In that endeavour, Wadhera is on a journey to improve every minor element of his cricket.

"When we come to the IPL and see how much international cricketers do to take care of themselves and their cricket, we realise that we are not giving our hundred percent," he says. "Some of them even carry their own water. When you are around these cricketers, you start adopting their ways. Their practices trigger you, and when you hear what helped them, you start thinking what if it could help me as well. I have started writing journals, I've been doing yoga religiously."

Interestingly, it's the insecurity of the competition that has allowed him to be at it, doing the non-cricket stuff to keep his game sharper. "It's easy to slip, but when you know other players are following it, you try to do it."

But it has helped, he admits. "Now, I have become more patient, calmed my mind, and understood my game a bit better."

Beyond his own individual improvement as a cricketer, he knows it won't lead to the desired outcome if Punjab Kings don't win the IPL. He understands the importance of team success and what role it can play for him to stake a claim to the national team. He has seen the reward of the team playing a dominant season and making it to the final last year. He and his teammates - Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Vijaykumar Vyshak and Yash Thakur - found opportunities to play for India A. It's now a chance to go a level higher.

In that endeavour, he is opening up new areas of scoring - just like he did with his reverse sweeps last season, hoping to find more productivity with the bat as well. It's all a part of the assembly of the cricketer he is becoming - from imitating Vaughan's hand position to filling his journal to asking for the ball from his captain so that he can give some drift and turn.

"Last season was my best in the IPL so far, but I haven't been able to touch my potential just yet," he rues, and then adds with some calmness, the same three words that have kept him going in this pursuit of excellence. "Hopefully, this year."