In Pant’s footsteps, Anuj Rawat blossoms in IPL 2022

The path Rishabh Pant has traced, Anuj Rawat has retraced. Like Pant, he left the quaint hills of Ramnagar, a Mofussil city in Nainital in Uttarakhand, and reached Delhi together with his mom to meet his cricketing dream. Like the Delhi Capitals captain, the left-handed wicket-keeper batsman relishes hitting massive and expending his vocal power behind the stumps.

But Rawat’s story has simply begun—and it could not be a shock if his story provides extra vibrant chapters to it. He has already registered a few first-class tons of, however the announcement of expertise got here on the IPL stage, when he rattled out a power-laden 66 off 47 balls for RCB towards Mumbai Indians, flaying among the fiercest bowlers round together with the nastiest of all of them, Jasprit Bumrah.

As with Pant, and so many others, the journey started within the yard of the Rawat family. He started taking part in together with his father, Virender and elder Prashant. “My father used to play cricket when he was young. But he never got any support from his family. He was the first one who spotted the talent in Anuj, and took him to Satish Pokhriyal, a cricket coach in Ramanagar. Anuj must have been six or seven back then,” Anuj’s elder brother Prashant Rawat tells The Indian Express in regards to the early steps.

Virender was a cricket tragic. “My father would never miss a match; he was so passionate about cricket. It was the same with Anuj and me. At our home, there used to be a festive atmosphere if India were playing any match,” says Prashant.

Train to Delhi

After a number of years, Satish Pokhriyal suggested Anuj’s father that if he needed his son to play skilled cricket, he ought to take him to New Delhi. Exactly eleven years in the past, Asha Rawat, alongside along with her sons Prashant and Anuj, boarded the prepare to New Delhi. The Rawats then rented a two-room flat in Uttam Nagar, nearer to Raj Kumar Sharma’s West Delhi Cricket Academy.

“I had completed my Class XIIth boards. I was anyway moving to Delhi, and Anuj also accompanied me. My mother stayed with us for six months, and then she moved back. We decided to stay at Uttam Nagar because it was closer to Anuj’s cricket academy, while my college was in Noida,” mentioned Prashant, who now runs a digital advertising and marketing firm together with his spouse Ranjana.

Financial hurdles

With Prashant’s training and Anuj’s cricket, Virendra began going through monetary issues. He took loans from his family and friends, however typically it didn’t suffice. “From my second year in college, I started working as well. I told my father that your dream is mine too. You don’t have to worry about Anuj’s cricketing career. I will pay his school fees, his coaching fees, I will take care of everything,” recalled Prashant.

Anuj Rawat (second from the fitting) together with his sister-in-law Ranjana Chopra Rawat (excessive left), brother Prashant Rawat, mom Asha Rawat and father, Virendra Pal Rawat.

“For a few years, we hardly interacted with each other. When I am back from college, he will be heading out for training. And when he is back home in the evening, I will be at work,” he mentioned.

Finances grew to become rosier, however Anuj’s profession was not going wherever. He was going through rejections after rejections. “He was not selected for Delhi Under-14 and then Delhi Under-16. For any cricketer, it is disheartening. But my father never lost hope; he will just keep motivating him. My father always knew that Anuj had everything in him and he would succeed at the professional level,” mentioned Prashant.

It was not solely Anuj who was damage. The coach was equally anguished. Sharma took the rejection into his coronary heart, and thus started the ‘making of Anuj Rawat.’

“Anuj always has this great self-belief. He was the most sincere among the lot, the most hard-working. If I ask him to take four laps, he will finish those four laps,” mentioned Sharma.

He quickly caught the eyes of Delhi selectors and made his Ranji Trophy debut within the 2017-18 season, when Pant was referred to as up for India A. Anuj impressed with a fluent 71 and adopted it up with one other half-century towards the Railways.

The pants are pink, the shirt is blue. The golden lion shining via. We’re RrrrrrrrCccccccBbbbb 🎤🎶@RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/C1dDpJdJdR

— Anuj Rawat (@AnujRawat_1755) April 9, 2022

When Pant grew to become a nationwide group common, Anuj started to get extra possibilities. Next season, he registered his maiden hundred, 134 off 183 towards Madhya Pradesh. Delhi had been reeling at 36 for five, earlier than he walked in, and he engineered them to a nine-wicket win.

Soon Rajasthan Royals’ scouts picked him. He spent two years with the Royals, the place he performed solely two video games. Then RCB got here calling, and realising his potential, coughed up Rs 3.4 crore, seventeen occasions greater than his base value, to buy him. It looks like cash properly spent. “Virat (Kohli), Faf (Du Plessis) and Mike (Hesson) had been impressed with him on the nets. And it was group administration’s resolution to play him on the high, and he’s doing comparatively properly,: mentioned Sharma.

🧿 pic.twitter.com/BxxAp1ENd6

— Anuj Rawat (@AnujRawat_1755) April 2, 2022

His best power, Sharma says, is that he’s unfazed by reputations. “One of the greatest strengths of Anuj is that he never goes by the bowler’s reputation. He will always play the ball, not the bowler, and I have seen this in him since the first day he came to my academy,” mentioned Sharma.

In age-group cricket, Anuj all the time performed as an opener, however when he performed within the Ranji Trophy, he needed to transfer all the way down to the center order. “He is a floater. He has opened for India Under-19, even for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy. He is a complete team-man,” mentioned Sharma, who’s now the Delhi coach. So far, he has travelled behind and together with Pant, however their paths might cross in the future.