New Delhi: His police officer mother didn’t want cricket to be Sachin Dhas’ focus in life but the father knew that he was destined to make it big on the 22-yard strip despite spending a better part of his life training on 11-yard grass tracks that pass for infrastructure in his hometown Beed.
The 19-year-old Dhas is among the brightest prospects to emerge in the Indian team that is competing in the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa. He has displayed superb game sense as the team’s designated finisher with 294 runs at an above 100 strike rate.
On Tuesday, his 96-run knock, along with skipper Uday Saharan’s 81, was a key factor in ensuring that India sneaked into the age-group showpiece’s final for a fifth consecutive time.
“You only have half pitches over here (in Beed). Sachin came here with his father when he was four and a half years old and even before going to South Africa, he trained on half turfs,” said an ecstatic Sheikh Azhar, the area’s most famous coach who shaped Dhas’ early years.
For a country which produces phenomenal cricketing talent often not because of, but despite the system, Sachin’s emergence as the next big thing from junior India stable shouldn’t come as a surprise.