CHENNAI: As Yash Dhull led India U-19 to a clinical victory against Australia in the semifinal clash with a match-winning hundred on Wednesday, he joined Virat Kohli and Unmukt Chand as the third India captain to score a hundred in the global event. The other two went on to win the World Cup, after which their career took contrasting turns.
Kohli became the most successful senior team captain while Chand never played for India and recently became the first male cricketer from the country to take part in the Big Bash League. Dhull was asked, at various points in the tournament, by the media about Ranji Trophy, IPL auction, being the next big thing. However, the 19-year-old has put his foot down and maintained that they, as a team, aren’t looking ahead to the World Cup.
While it’s hard to believe that they don’t even have a thought at the back of their mind, the results are backing up the skippers’ statement. Despite being hit by Covid-19, not once but twice, the young brigade never looked perturbed. At various stages, one player or the other has stood up for them — the openers Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Harnoor Singh in Dhull’s absence or the captain himself in the semifinal. The bowlers, on the other hand, have been consistent through the tournament with the spinners leading the attack.
On Saturday, as they take on England, who will be playing their first final since 1998, the teams on either side of the 22 yards could be feeling a different kind of pressure. While India has been largely clinical with their performances in every match, England had their share of nervy moments, especially in the semifinal clash against Afghanistan. The young lions will be looking to take confidence from their previous match and try to win their second title and India, the most successful team in the history of the tournament would want to go one step further this time after losing to Bangladesh in 2020 final.
The pressure of knockouts, especially when the team almost has one hand on the trophy, could have different effects on players, making them try different things. As the ever-energetic Kohli interacted with the Indian players ahead of the summit clash and provided them the necessary confidence, they might also want to take a look at what the other title-winning captain and centurion in the 2012 final, Chand, wrote about what went wrong with his career since.
“When you go out to bat, just remember why you first held that bat in the first place. You could have chosen a tennis racquet, a hockey stick, boxing gloves. But no, you chose this bat and ball and you chose it for a reason. Close your eyes and remember the first time you held it. It was simple then, and it should be simple now,” he wrote on Wisden in 2020.
If the players could keep things simple and do that on Saturday, against England, adding another silverware to the trophy cabinet might not look that difficult.