CHENNAI: Believe it or not, a stranger on a train suggested the name of Shivang, one of Sunrisers Hyderabad's newest recruits. His naming ceremony was already over. He was going to be called Shubham Kumar. But during one particular train journey, the baby just wouldn't stop crying. After striking a conversation with his mother, Anju Rani, the stranger casually namedropped Shubham. "A child must always be given meaningful names."
"That's how his name changed to Shivang," Parveen Kumar, Shivang's father, told this daily. He is a chief ticket inspector with the Indian Railways hailing from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. It was Parveen's dream to play cricket and in his quest to achieve it, he even moved to West Bengal, representing them in U19 tournaments. However, once he landed the government job on sports quota, parental pressure made him move away from the game.
Parveen got recruited as a grade IV employee and had appeared in departmental examinations to qualify as a ticket examiner a few years down the line. The result was announced on the day Shivang was born. "I cleared the examination when he was born, so I named him Shubham (auspicious or fortunate). But we changed it to Shivang after the train incident."
These days, the 23-year-old practices one of the rarest skills in all of cricket. Left-arm wrist-spin. He has already played twice for the franchise (nine runs and 1/71 across two games) and will be an integral part of the side going forward as well.
In a way, Shivang is doing what Parveen wanted to do. Play cricket.
At the age of 12, Shivang appeared in U13 selection trials but couldn't make it to the Uttar Pradesh squad. "He left cricket for almost a year and we kept his kit bag in a trunk. One day he went to watch a movie based on former India captain MS Dhoni's life and that changed everything. He insisted I should also watch the movie and once I did it, I also recollected the struggling days I endured in Bengal. The movie drew him back to cricket."
Parveen then took a different route and shifted Shivang to Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh when he was around 13. "He stayed there with one of my acquaintances and we visited him regularly. Despite him being a right-hander, I advised him to bowl left-arm spin. I used to do that during my playing days as I strongly believe a left-arm bowler has an advantage over his right-arm counterparts. In 2021, he shifted to Rewa and started playing for them in inter-divisional tournaments."
Shivang's big moment came when he was picked by one of the franchises of the Madhya Pradesh League (MPL) in 2024. After the inaugural season of the MPL, the father decided to turn Shivang into a wrist-spinner. "You are not that effective if you bowl left-arm finger spin as the game has evolved a lot and the shortest format is basically a batter's game. So we decided to make the big change. I asked him to become a Chinaman (left-arm wrist spinner) as it's a rare breed and could open avenues for him at the bigger level. The father-son duo worked day in and day out and changes were there to be seen when he featured in the 2025 MPL. He soon made his Madhya Pradesh debut in white-ball tournaments (Vijay Hazare and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy) last season and was also picked up by the 2016 champions at his base price of Rs 30 lakh.
Mohnish Mishra, former MP and IPL player, who now is the head coach of Rewa Division, said Shivang made progress by leaps and bounds as a Chinaman. "He primarily was an opener when he came here but in the past two years developed as a good Chinaman. The way he bowled in his IPL debut was memorable as he looked unfazed even at that grand stage. He is sincere and will only go up the ladders if he continues that way," Mishra said.
Neither Parveen nor his family (wife and second son Devang, who also plays cricket) have watched Shivang in the flesh. "We will go to stadiums only the next season as we want him to enjoy his game and carve a niche for himself in the process. Representing India is the ultimate goal and hopefully he does that. If that happens, we will try to watch him from stadiums as many times as possible," the father signed off.