Prithvi Shaw and Australia’s Jason Sangha on the eve of the Under-19 World Cup final in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand. (BCCI Photo)
Prithvi Shaw and his teammates are unbeaten in the Under-19 World Cup so far. En route the final, they have rolled over Australia and Pakistan, apart from brushing aside Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. On Saturday they will face Australia again. The Aussie colts are a talented bunch but they lost in the first round against India by 100 runs and will be eager to avenge the defeat in the showdown fight.
The contest can go either way. While a victory for either team will make the players overnight stars — more so in India where earlier junior world cup winning squads have been treated like royalty — Shaw’s team, irrepective of the result, has shown enough potential to make one believe that the future is in safe hands. Barring Shaw, the boys were anonymous only about half-a-month ago. Just a handful of domestic cricket nerds kept an eye on the likes of Shubman Gill, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Ishan Porel and Anukul Roy. What a difference just a fortnight makes.
Nagarkoti and Mavi are now Rs 3.2 crore and Rs 3 crore players respectively for Kolkata Knight Riders. Gill joins them there for Rs 1.8 crore, while Shaw has bagged a Rs 1.2 crore contract with Delhi Daredevils. Never in the IPL auctions did we witness such ‘colts craze’ before.
Shaw carried some reputation into the tournament, because of his 961 runs and five centuries in his debut Ranji season for Mumbai. In the ongoing U-19 World Cup he has scored 232 runs at 77.33 in five matches. Along with Manjot Kalra, he has given good starts to the team in almost every game. If the top-order is on song, apprehension about an untested middle-order becomes unnecessary.
Gill, at one drop, is the find for India. The 18-year-old made a very impressive debut in first-class cricket this season, scoring a half-century and a century in his first two games. In Youth ODIs he has struck a purple patch, having six 50-plus scores on the spin. The latest one, 102 not out against Pakistan in the semifinal, earned accolades even from Virat Kohli. During that match-turning effort, he once danced down the track against off-spinner Ali Zaryab, aimed long-on and then at the last moment with a flick of the wrist sent the ball to the deep mid-wicket fence. For a moment it felt like a Kohli understudy was at work.
Gill’s Punjab Ranji team captain, Harbhajan Singh, analysed the youngster’s batting, while describing him as a special talent. “He has great hand-eye coordination. He is tall and utilises his reach very well. He gets a lot of time to play his shots, which is natural. This is why he plays fast bowling very well. He has all modern-day shots (in his repertoire) that add to his range. He hits the ball very hard. I just told him to play his own game, when he made his (Ranji Trophy) debut. This is what I tell every young player who walks into our system. But Shubman is a very talented guy with a bright future ahead,” Harbhajan told The Indian Express.
India have won the U-19 World Cup thrice and to paraphrase the official broadcaster’s promo, greatness began here for Kohli. That 2008 title-winning side had Ravindra Jadeja and Manish Pandey as well. The 2004 India U-19 squad had Suresh Raina, Shikhar Dhawan, Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu and Robin Uthappa in their ranks. The 2006 squad unveiled Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara and Piyush Chawla.
Speed machines
What separates this team from its predecessors are the fast bowlers. India never had fast bowlers who clock over 140 kmph, two of them Mavi and Nagarkoti touch 145.
Only last week, Rajasthan all rounder Deepak Chahar was saying how tough things have become of late for the cricketers in his state. The Rajasthan Cricket Association has been serving the BCCI ban since 2014 and although the cricket board’s general body revoked it two months ago, the court cases are still pending.
Bereft of the BCCI grant, daily allowances for the Rajasthan cricketers have had been irregular. “For the last two-three years we were not having good preparation and practice for matches. It had been very tough,” Chahar had said during the recently concluded Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.
So Nagarkoti, hailing from Rajasthan, hasn’t been assisted by the system. His emergence attests to the fact that the region is loaded with raw fast-bowling prospects. Nagarkoti’s team mate in the Ranji side, left-arm quick Khaleel Ahmed, featured in the 2016 U-19 World Cup. During the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he at times went past 146kph and was handsomely rewarded at the IPL auction — Sunrisers Hyderabad signing him up for Rs 3 crore. There’s Nathu Singh as well, another quick from Rajasthan.
Mavi, a 19-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, hasn’t played first-class cricket yet. But he will now saunter into next level. That both Nagarkoti and Mavi are excellent anywhere on the field serves as a bonus. Nagarkoti effected a brilliant run-out in India’s opening game. Mavi took a blinder at deep fine leg to dismiss Pakistan opener Muhammad Zaid in the semifinal.
Spare a thought for Ishan Porel, the lithe and wiry Bengal seamer who suffered a bruised heel in India’s tournament opener against Australia, sat out the group phase, went unsold at the IPL auction and then returned to choke Bangladesh in the quarterfinal followed by a match-winning 4/17 against the arch-rivals in the semifinal. Porel’s 6’3” frame is extracting disconcerting bounce off the deck, troubling the batters.
“Whenever the team’s needed them, they (fast bowlers) have provided the breakthroughs. They’re ready whenever I ask them to bowl. They’ve good intensity as well; their fitness is great as well. All of them – Kamlesh, Porel, Mavi… It helps us (that) all have a good attitude in the field, we’re all really pumped up when our fast bowlers do well,” Shaw said ahead of the final.
The spinners, too, have performed commendably, taking wickets and choking runs in the middle overs. The U-19 team head coach Rahul Dravid was effusive in his praise for leg-spinner Riyan Parag. But success-wise, left-arm spinner Anukul Roy stands first among the equals, with 12 wickets from five matches. He has contributed with the bat as well, scoring 33 and adding 67 priceless runs with Gill for the sixth wicket when the team was under pressure.
Roy is a Jharkhand boy. The emergence of a certain MS Dhoni from his state early into the last decade was the first solid step towards erasing the big city-small town divide in the Indian cricket.
Now, Roy gets the same facilities and infrastructure support that a Mumbai youngster, for example, enjoys. With the lines blurred, positivity is trickling down from top to bottom. Little wonder then that the colts are revelling in it.