At Under-19 Cup, life-long bonds are forged, rivalries begin

India Under-19 new-ball bowlers Avesh Khan (L) and Khaleel Ahmed.

On Avesh Khan’s Instagram profile, Khaleel Ahmed pops up in almost every second or third picture with an appropriate caption: #BestBrothers, #BrothersForever or #SomeVariationOfthePreviousTwoHastags. The two India Under-19 pacers share not only the new ball and a hotel room, they also share an excellent rapport on and off the field.

“Khaleel and I are roommates, and have always been ever since we have been playing together,” the Indore right-arm pacer Avesh says of the left-armer from Tonk.

Pace bowlers hunt in pairs, it is often said. At the Under-19 World Cup, Khan and Ahmed have reaffirmed this adage. Khan has taken nine wickets in three matches and is second on the list of wicket-takers so far. Ahmed has taken none, but he has bowled much better than that. By not letting the pressure up from the other hand, he has played a key role in Khan’s wickets.

“Our understanding is pretty good and we open together. We always plan things out and like to build pressure. Sometimes I get wickets, sometimes he gets. We say things like ‘You have to build pressure if they attack me and I will build pressure if they attack you’. In the starting ten overs, we try to not let the batsmen hit out. If wickets don’t come we try to give least runs,” explains Khan.

There is another pair in the team that often hangs out together. Captain Ishan Kishan and vice-captain Rishabh Pant. Both are openers, left-handers and wicketkeepers too, though Pant dons the gloves when the both of them are playing.

“Rehte bhi ek saath hain, khaate bhi ek saath hain, sote bhi ek saath hain,” said Pant jokingly after the second match against New Zealand, as Kishan smiled on the side. Their opening partnership hadn’t flourished till that point, but in the final Group match against Nepal, the duo plundered 124 runs in just 9.1 overs, with Pant scoring 78 off 24 balls and Kishan 52 off 40 balls. Between them they hammered 16 fours and smoked eight sixes.

“Aur aaj aapne dekh hi liya ke ham maarte bhi saath hi hain (and today you have seen that we also go after bowlers together),” said Pant after the match on Monday and giggled. Junior cricket is a great platform to build lasting relationships, not only with your teammates but, in a tournament like the Under-19 World Cup, also with players from other participating nations.

When various teams are put up in the same town, cricketers from different countries do bump into each other in the foyer, restaurant or the swimming pool of the hotel. On a busy day, they also have to share practice grounds. And of course, during the course of the tournament, they get to face each other, too. As a result, enduring friendships – and not just careers – are forged. When Virat Kohli went to attend Phil Hughes’s funeral in Macksville in December 2014, he was there paying tribute not only to a fellow cricketer, but also to a friend he had known from Under-19 days.

“I think after attending the funeral I was as emotional and taken aback by the incident because Phil was one of the guys I used to interact with when he used to come on tours and even when I was in Australia,” Kohli had said. “I was in a camp with him in 2008 at Brisbane and I was always closer to him than most of the guys. It was an equally saddening and emotional moment for me, but as professional cricketers you have to move on and do what needs to be done.”

They had featured in the same Under-19 World Cup as well – in 2008 in Malaysia.

Sometimes what remains long after the Under-19 World Cup is over is not friendship but rivalry. Take Kohli’s example, again. The Indian batsman and Bangladesh’s pacer Rubel Hossain aren’t the best of pals on the field, and they make it quite evident to each other and the viewers. And it’s a rivalry that goes back to junior cricket.

“I have played a lot with Virat in U-19s in 2008, so both of us go back a long way. I like the challenge. He is actually very aggressive, so facing him also fuels me to do well,” says Rubel.

The first time they crossed each other’s paths was in an Under-19 series in Sri Lanka in 2007. In 2008, in a triangular tournament in South Africa, Rubel clean bowled Kohli after the latter had made a brisk fifty. You can be sure sparks must have flown. While their teams didn’t face each other, they are rumoured to have had a heated exchange during in Malaysia.

“I have got Virat out couple of times in our U-19 days. Then in international cricket too, I have got him quite a few times. Whenever I see him at the other end, it pumps me up,” says the volatile paceman, who is in Dhaka these days, recovering from an injury.

In the seven ODIs that the two teams have played, he has got Virat out twice, including in the 2015 World Cup quarterfinal match where he gave the Indian batsman a send off. While walking back to the pavilion, Virat gave back as good as he got. What is not known is that later the duo met and patched up. “On the field he may be very aggressive but outside he is a very nice guy. We speak to each other. He, in fact, came to our dressing room after the quarterfinal and we chatted for a long time,” says Rubel. “It’s just that I get a different feeling when I bowl against him. I will not allow him to hit me and take him out.”