A young and unsung side

While India was celebrating the victory of the senior team over Australia and the U-19 team's world cup triumph, the Ferozeshah Kotla was witness to another team of promising youngsters taking on the Ranji Trophy Champions, Delhi.

To their credit, the Delhi team had lost only once in the entire season, to the Pakistani cricket team and since then had remained unbeaten till they met this young Haryana side led by Amit Mishra in the Ranji Trophy One Day Zonal tournament. I could go on to describe the match in detail but that would be unnecessary since the HT, Hindu and TOI have covered the match in detail and cricinfo has uploaded the scoreboard. I feel it would be more interesting to profile a few of these youngsters who have the willingness to succeed at the highest level. I am not mentioning their fielding abilities as all of them are brilliant fielders and the Haryana team is possibly the best fielding side in the country!

1. Amardeep Sonkar (Age: 24) (nicknamed Jayasuriya by his team mates due to his uncanny resemblance, both physical and in his style of play to the great player) has been one of the finds of the List A season (List A, for the uninitiated are the domestic One Day matches) He is a slow left arm bowler and an attacking opening batsman who has not only given good starts to the Haryana team but has also stemmed the flow of runs whenever he has been called into the attack.
   
2. Nitin Saini (Age: 19) is a player who performed at the U-19 championships and was given his chance in the List A competition. An opening batsman and a wicket keeper, he also bowls useful off spin!! Talk about multi tasking. He is more of a classical player and is not made out of the slam bang stuff.
3. Sunny Singh (Age: 21) a veteran at 21! A player who debuted at the age of 17! Played for India U-19. Scored exceedingly, went through a bad patch, was dropped and made his comeback in this series scoring a quick fire 42 against Punjab and a 59 against Delhi. One player who has it in him to play and to successfully perform at the highest level. (not an over estimation of his abilities by any stretch.) He is a useful medium pace bowler as well.
4. Sachin Rana (Age: 23) an extremely talented player who has performed not only for Haryana but also for the North Zone both with the bowl and with the bat. Having already scored 2696 runs and snapped 56 wickets. His future seems bright.
5. Kamal Beniwal (Age: 22) He is very good with spinners and in the two matches that he has played, against Services and Delhi, he has performed well, scoring 52 against the Ranji Champions.
6. Abir Lavasa (Age: 21) An under 22 player who was promoted to the Ranji First Class side in Haryana's last game where he top scored with 76 on debut. Having not done well in the first two List A matches this season, he came alive with a 17 ball 34 against Services and followed it up with a 34 ball 37 against Delhi in the end overs. A very composed boy with a bright future.
   
7. Sumit Sharma (Age: 26) At 26 he is one of the senior most members of the side. Technically a very correct batsman who still hasn't fulfilled his talent and I write this because a lot is expected of him. His performance has been good by normal standards but by his standard, he needs to be more consistent.
8. Dhruv Singh (Age: 21) Abir's buddy in more ways than one! He is a brilliant fielder (need to mention this) and a very talented batsman who rotates the strike the way a back bencher rotates a pencil, with ease! Hasn't got the chances yet since the top order is scoring runs and he eventually comes into bat in the last 3 or 4 overs but a phenomenal team man with a bright future. (Also the joker of the team!)
9. Amit Mishra (Age: 25) A young team should have had a young Captain and they have one in Amit Mishra. Another veteran at 25. In my view the best classical leg spinner in the country. His 45 wickets in this First Class season are the second highest by a bowler (The highest wickets are by someone who has bowled 2o odd overs more than him and has taken one more wicket than him (46)) His performance in the Challenger series was also outstanding. A very attacking batsman as well as a brilliant bowler makes him one of the strong contenders for a recall to the Indian side. Impeccably behaved and a good leader, was an automatic choice for Captain of this well behaved side.
10. Gaurav Vashisht (Age: 25) Another senior player:)! Personally, I really like this boy's attitude. He is always ready to be there for the team's cause. If his team needs him to bat, he will score a 50 batting at no. 10. Scrooge like in his off break bowling, a fine gentleman and an asset to the Haryana Cricket Association.
11. Sanjay Budhwar (Age: 20) He didn't play that much at the U-19 level. Worked hard on his fitness and strength and is now one of the fastest bowlers in Haryana. Though he tends to be erratic at times, his Left Arm Pace has come in for praise from all quarters. Definitely a prospect for the future. (Akash Chopra may vouch for him since he is one of the rare bowlers who got him on a duck!)

This was the playing 11 against the Delhi team. With an average age of 22.7, they certainly fill the heart of the Haryanvis with pride and joy. With former players Ashwani Kumar and Vijay Yadav to guide them, there is a strong likelihood of this team's sitting on a very good learning curve.

In times when all one reads about is money in Cricket and all sorts of motives, it was refreshing to see a young team playing passionate Cricket. All the best to them.