![]() In fact, he remembers continuously laughing at it, sitting in a corner in the Bengal dressing room. Until then, he had not got a consistent run in the state side.įrom the kind of background he has had, any bowler would be overwhelmed with being included in a State team. He also acknowledges “Lal sir” - former India opener and Bengal head coach Arun Lal - for believing in him and giving him every match of the 2019-20 Ranji Trophy, which proved to be a game-changer. They taught me to be disciplined and patient,” he says. The next season, he made his Bengal debut, having overcome malnutrition issues and learning the art of cricket. Bose sensed his talent and convinced Waqar to include him. Laxman, Waqar Younis and Muttiah Muralitharan at the helm. The Cricket Association of Bengal launched a talent hunt cum grooming programme, with V.V.S. ![]() Then came the Vision 2020 trials and it changed my life forever.” “I would play these prize-money tournaments in Kolkata, Patna, even Delhi at times. For most of the next two years, he was bitten by tennis-ball cricket - a lucrative proposition - and the T20 frenzy. He was elevated to the first division of the CAB League but was far from focused. That’s how I played in the second division, picked six wickets in the first match,” he recalls. I didn’t even know what an inswing or an outswing is. In 2012, Mukesh’s father wanted him to “take up a job and help the family”. The side-glass cut my right cheek bone” - for him to get an ultimatum from his father to pack his bags and head over to Kolkata. It took an accident - “I was riding a bike and someone rammed into it. While his father used to run a taxi business in Kolkata, Mukesh preferred to stay at his native place. Far from being a privileged cricketer in urban India, as a teenager, Mukesh would be waiting for the fields to be harvested so that he could run in and bowl in Kakarkund, a village in Bihar’s Gopalganj district. Perhaps his tendency to not get over-excited on what is perhaps the biggest day in his sojourn as a cricketer has a lot to do with how his life has panned out so far. ![]() It’s a very proud feeling to be selected for India but tomorrow is important.” But one can sense Mukesh, just over a week shy of turning 29, is being genuine. Your immediate feeling after reading this would be it’s a typical cliche used by sportspersons to downplay their achievement. #Rohit pick the phone tones zipYes, I am extremely happy with the India call-up but for now, am focused on tomorrow’s game,” Mukesh says, in a soft tone, contrary to how his balls zip past batters. #Rohit pick the phone tones how to“Honestly, I am just thinking about how to bowl tomorrow and my plan and my team’s (Rest of India) plan to wrap the game up tomorrow. Sitting in the hotel’s lobby in a white tee and black shorts, what is on his mind at that precise moment? It’s been almost three hours since he has received a call-up that virtually every young Indian aspires for at some point in his or her early life. “He waited for the official announcement and then called me to congratulate,” says Mukesh. Minutes before leaving the Saurashtra Cricket Association stadium, Mukesh and Umran Malik were involved in a prolonged discussion with national selector Sunil Joshi. ![]() That was followed with calls to those who had stood by him through thick and thin, including his coaches “Joy sir (Joydeep Mukherjee, former Bengal batter) and Rano sir (Ranadeb Bose, former Bengal swinger and bowling coach).” The first thing he did was to call “my mother and inform her”. Within minutes, he started getting congratulatory messages on social media and messaging apps from his fans, supporters and well-wishers. When Mukesh Kumar was in the Rest of India’s team bus on the way back to the hotel after the second day’s play of the Irani Cup, he got a notification on his phone: he was added to the Indian team’s WhatsApp group for the South Africa ODI series. ![]()
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