Mumbai: A 99-run chase in 37 overs (DLS method) for India Under-19 team against the United States of America Under-19 was no big ask, but the conditions in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, are always a challenge for batters from the subcontinent. You need to adjust to the pace, movement and the spongy bounce. The team found itself down to 25/3 in 5.2 overs with Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre both out.
India’s 17-year-old keeper-batter Abhigyan Kundu came at No 5 and restored calm with 42 not out off 41 balls with 5 fours and 1 six to take India U-19 to a six wicket win in their ICC Under-19 World Cup opener on Thursday.
The value of the innings notwithstanding, his childhood coach Chetan Jadhav, isn’t enthused. It is run of the mill stuff for him. He knows his player is capable of more spectacular feats.
“I have recorded over 100 of Abhigyan’s centuries on my mobile phone. This innings feels normal for me. Yes it is good that he is playing responsibility for the team but it is not a surprise,” said Jadhav.
The coach is essentially saying that Kundu is capable of dominating the show. not just go run-a-ball.
“When he was 13, he had scored two four hundreds and two triple hundreds. At the age of 14, he had completed 100 centuries. So these innings feel different (unlike his dominant style). Here (with India U-19) he is carrying out the responsibility role. He is a player who has hit 320 in 94 balls,” added Jadhav.
In the Under-19s Asia Cup in December, he smashed 209 versus Malaysia off 125 balls. Coach Jadhav is expecting such feats from the left-hand batter’s blade at the World Cup.
Jadhav is another coach from the late Ramakant Achrekar’s stable. He didn’t make it big in cricket but follows the same principles in his coaching at his Navi Mumbai Sector 26 centre at a school ground, and earlier while coaching at Sector 16. It means training the full day, all year round.
“I started practicing with Mohan Jadhav sir when I was five, I used to practice from 10 in the morning till 9 pm, 10 to 12 hours of practice everyday while consistently working on my fitness side by side. My target was to everyday play 1000 balls, everything mixed together, side arms or underarm knocks. I just focussed on playing those balls and practicing,” Kundu told HT before taking the flight to South Africa for the World Cup.
“I scored my first century when I was 10, from there it started. I was in good form, now I have ended up scoring 125 centuries,” he said.
The reason Kundu got into cricket so early was because he was so full of energy that he would be out playing in the building complex the whole day. One of Jadav’s trainee, Saurav Patil, who is now a doctor, noticed the small boy’s hyperactivity and recommended
“I used to play full day, so Saurav uncle spoke to my father “why not put me into proper cricket coaching?” said Kundu.
The working parents thought cricket training would be a way to channelise his energy. “I was looking for the right player. Saurav, who was living in the same building, had brought Abhigyan to me, saying ‘Sir, you are looking to make a cricketer, here is the boy. There won’t be any interference from his parents’.”
It’s been non-stop cricket ever since. Jadhav said Kundu has played 722 matches so far, out of which he has kept wickets in 600. “That’s how he has been built.”
