New Delhi: Ravneet Singh Ricky runs a cricket academy and works for Air India. Shalabh Srivastava has gone into oblivion after BCCI suspended him for five years following a sting operation on match fixing.
Ajitesh Argal has played the last of his 10 first-class matches in 2015. Smit Patel is trying to keep his first-class career afloat by playing for India’s worst performing domestic side Tripura.
Wondering how the four are joined by common thread. They were all star performers during India U-19 team’s victorious World Cup campaigns in 2000, 2008 and 2012.
Ricky was adjudged best batsman of the 2000 World Cup campaign —a tournament that gave India Yuvraj Singh and Mohammed Kaif.
Srivastava, a left arm seamer, was the third highest wicket-taker in 2000 while Argal was the man of the final during Virat Kohli led side’s triumph in 2008. Smit scored a half-century in the 2012 final. But leave alone playing for India, Ricky, Smit, Shalabh and Ajitesh could not even remotely replicate their performance at the first-class level.
As the whole country is euphoric about U-19 World Cup success, an Unmukt Chand comment forces one to sit back and think. “For every Virat Kohli story, there is a story of Unmukt Chand or Shikhar Dhawan also.”
Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Manjot Kalra, Shivam Mavi or Kamlesh Nagarkoti are no doubt talented but it is too early to say how many will make it big in international cricket. That class of 2000 that had Ricky also had Yuvraj Singh–possibly one of India’s finest limited overs cricketer and Mohammed Kaif who played 120 odd ODIs including 2003 World Cup final for India.
“A few will make it but let’s accept the fact that a lot of them will fall by the wayside. That’s the reality but now important thing is to go back and play. It will be great if two or three from this batch make it,” says former India opener Aakash Chopra.
What he feels will work for the current lot is that there is IPL which can hasten their progress. “Kamlesh Nagarkoti is an exciting prospect and I expect him to play for Kolkata Knight Riders in the upcoming IPL. So if he does well, then naturally Rajasthan will be forced to play him in Ranji Trophy despite Pankaj Singh, Aniket Chaudhary, and Deepak Chahar being there,” Chopra explained the situation.
Like it could be a Catch 22 situation for someone like Harvik Desai as Parthiv Patel still plays for Gujarat. Smit had to shift to Tripura. Talking about final centurion Manjot Kalra’s future in Delhi cricket, Chopra gave a technical reasoning.
“We have seen Manjot in white ball cricket and not in red ball which is a different proposition altogether,” he said.
However both Chopra and former India wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta feels that with more India A tours now and Rahul Dravid in charge of their transition, some of the boys will be ready in near future. So from now on, it’s wait and watch till the story unfolds.
5 Indians in ICC U-19 WC squad
The Indians expectedly dominated the U-19 World Cup squad announced by the ICC Sunday, with five players from the triumphant side making it to the world eleven.
The world team has the top three of the Indian batting line up — captain Prithvi Shaw (261 runs), player of the final Manjot Kalra (252 runs) and player of the tournament Shubman Gill (372 runs).
Left arm spinner Anukul Roy (14 wickets) and fast bowler Kamlesh Nagarkoti (nine wickets) are the other Indians named in the world team.
The team of the ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup was picked by a five-person selection panel that comprised former Windies fast bowler Ian Bishop, former India women’s captain Anjum Chopra, former New Zealand captain Jeff Crowe, journalist Shashank Kishore and former Australia all-rounder Tom Moody.
South Africa captain Raynard van Tonder was named to lead side which has representation from six countries.
The squad: Prithvi Shaw, Manjot Kalra, Shubman Gill, Anukul Roy, Kamlesh Nagarkoti (all from India), Raynard van Tonder (C), Wandile Makwetu (WK), Gerald Coetzee (all from South Africa), Finn Allen (New Zealand), Qais Ahmad (Afghanistan), Shaheen Afridi (Pakistan), Alick Athanaze (12th man from West Indies).