Trainees of Mohali Cricket Academy get to practise with Indian, South African teams

The cricket trainees with South African cricketer Morné Morkel during the net practice at PCA IS Bindra Cricket Stadium in Mohali on Monday. Kamleshwar Singh

It was the second ball of Indian opener Murali Vijay’s practice session and 20-year-old medium pacer Rishabh Sharma bowled the Indian Test opener with an in-swinging delivery. Two balls later, Sharma again induced an edge from Vijay’s bat which would have been caught by a slip fielder in normal circumstances. Since it was the practice session for the Indian team, Sharma continued his bowling rather than celebrating.

Moments later, when the youngster from the Mohali Cricket Academy along with other trainees of the academy spent more than five minutes with Indian captain Kohli and Vijay, they sought tips and got a picture clicked with the two.

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“Bowling to the Indian captain is a huge thing for a youngster like me. We enjoyed every moment of the practice session. Murali Vijay also spent some time with us and after the first bowler, he talked with me for two-three minutes. Later, Virat Kohli also offered us some tips and enquired about our careers. Earlier in the day, I got an opportunity to spend some time with South African bowler Morne Morkel and he showed me how to grip the ball correctly and improvements in the run-up. He has called me tomorrow as well and told me that he would himself show us some technical things,” said Sharma, who is a student of Khalsa College, Mohali, and joined the Mohali Cricket Academy six years ago.

If Sharma was confident of bowling to the likes of Kohli and Vijay, another trainee, Sukhman Sandhu, was bowling for the first time at the nets against an international team. Sandhu, who also trains at the Mohali Cricket Academy, joined the academy three months ago and is also a right-arm medium pacer. Sandhu spent close to an hour with the South African team before bowling to Kohli and Vijay in the evening. More than 15 trainees were present at the training session and some spinners also bowled to the Indian batsmen.

“I was nervous before the session started. But bowling for some time boosted my confidence. We got to see how much effort is put in by players like Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. They are perhaps the best batsmen in the world and we are looking forward to bowling more to them during the next two days. I opted for professional training only three months ago and this opportunity would surely help me a lot,” said Sandhu, who is a student of DAV College, Chandigarh.

Mohali Cricket Academy coach Sukhwinder Singh Tinku, too, believes that such opportunities help youngsters a lot and the cricketers will learn a lot. “Seeing international players so closely and bowling to them makes these youngsters understand that they have also come through the same system of coaching. Players like Manpreet Gony and Harmeet Bansal too used to bowl at the nets and later would play in the IPL. My son, who is also a cricketer, was also excited to see the players train. He was suffering an injury but he kept cheering for players like de Villiers and Kohli,” said the 45-year-old coach, who is also coach of Gurkeerat Mann, who was recently included in the Indian ODI team against South Africa.