The quiet of Pimpri, Chinchwad, is unsettling as you head towards the Vengsarkar Cricket Academy. Like every other city in the grip of Covid, Pune is in the middle of an extended sleep. We don't see those 12-year old around, lugging along their cricket kits, hands dripping sweat, and ambition tattooed on their chests. But this is Covid-era, and the new normal is staring at us.
Closer to the academy's entrance, Ruturaj Gaikwad is waiting. This writer is irresponsibly late for an interview, but he brightens the mood with a generous smile. The 24-year-old, the batting flavour of the IPL, doesn't merely comfort us and the Chennai Super Kings with the bat. He speaks like a boy next door, almost apologetic about the attention he's getting.
“People now recognise me as Ruturaj when I go to temples or make the odd visit to a café. This is what you work hard for,” he says.
The softness is only in the voice. Give him a bat, a different creature emerges. Coaches instill in you the values of getting to the pitch of the ball. Ruturaj, too, is the classical mould, but he can follow his own grammar of batting. Last season, he cleared the in-field against Varun Chakravarthy with a couple of casual strides towards the ball and just plain extension of hands. His audacious sweep off Jasprit Bumrah, of all people, activated YouTubers last week. It's natural to ask, just who's this bloke?
Sarfraz Khan and Prithvi Shaw made you follow their careers with eye-blinking feats in school cricket. Cricket wasn't even a conversation in Ruturaj's family, let alone having an Ajit Tendulkar to influence his formative years. He doesn't remember who initiated him to the game. “In many of my childhood pictures, I see myself holding a bat, so somewhere I must have got connected to it. My mother Kavita Gaikwad played kho-kho. Maybe, I got my sporting genes through her, he says.
ãã®èšäºã¯ The Free Press Journal ã® October 10, 2021 çã«æ²èŒãããŠããŸãã
7 æ¥éã® Magzter GOLD ç¡æãã©ã€ã¢ã«ãéå§ããŠãäœåãã®å³éžããããã¬ãã¢ã ã¹ããŒãªãŒã8,500 以äžã®éèªãæ°èã«ã¢ã¯ã»ã¹ããŠãã ããã
ãã§ã«è³Œèªè ã§ã ?  ãµã€ã³ã€ã³
ãã®èšäºã¯ The Free Press Journal ã® October 10, 2021 çã«æ²èŒãããŠããŸãã
7 æ¥éã® Magzter GOLD ç¡æãã©ã€ã¢ã«ãéå§ããŠãäœåãã®å³éžããããã¬ãã¢ã ã¹ããŒãªãŒã8,500 以äžã®éèªãæ°èã«ã¢ã¯ã»ã¹ããŠãã ããã
ãã§ã«è³Œèªè ã§ã? ãµã€ã³ã€ã³
BIDEN TARS INDIA, CHINA, RUSSIA AS 'XENOPHOBIC'
President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that "xenophobia" in China, Japan and India is hobbling their growth, as he argued that migration has been good for the US economy.
MIS' LAST CHANCE TO GIVE SOMETHING TO THE FANS #TATAIPE NDIANS
Kolkata Knight Riders look to iron out flaws against off-colour Mumbai Indians
US campus divisions over Gaza war are going global
Students in learning centres across Australia are huddlling in rival camps
SC no to Nath govt amendment in MPPSC-19 recruitment
Dismissing the amendment made by Kamal Nath government for MPPSC recruitment, Supreme Court the High has upheld Court judgment of double bench judge bench of justice Sujoy Paul and Dwarka Dhish Bansal in its judgment which had declared amendment in rules for MP Public service Commission (MPPSC)-2019 declared 'unconstitutional'.
BJP promotes leaders with corruption, mum on public issues: Priyanka
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday asserted that the BJP promotes only two kinds of leaders, one who is corrupt and the other who speaks nothing about people's welfare and issues.
POSTAL BALLOT POLLING PROCESS TO BE CONDUCTED WITH UTMOST CARE'
District Election Officer and GHMC Commissioner Ronald Rose advised the officials concerned to conduct postal ballot polling duties with utmost care.
Parcel blast kills two in North Gujarat
A deadly explosion ripped through a village in North Gujarat, leaving two people dead and two others critically injured. The incident occurred in Veda village of the Vadali belt in Sabarkantha district, and has sent shockwaves through the community.
Delhi L-G sacks 52 Women's Commission employees
Ex-chairperson Swati Maliwal accused of appointing them without permission
Samba infiltration to test alertness of troops on border, says BSF IG
A senior BSF official on Thursday said an intruder who was killed along the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district may have been sent to carry out reconnaissance of the area and test the alertness of troops for a potential tempt.
CBI not under control of Union, Centre tells SC
Govt cannot supervise registration, investigation of cases by agency