5 Indian cricketers who deserve biopics

It's not just MS Dhoni's, there are numerous other 'untold' stories in Indian cricket.

Almost every first-class cricketer is fighting his or her own physical and visceral battles, chasing just one dream. Those who have achieved that dream, the international cricketers, aren't just building memories for the country, their fans and themselves but are also toiling hard to hold on to where they are at every day.

In that sense, it's almost impossible to pick just five people, apart from Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Mohammed Azharuddin and Pravin Tambe, who deserve a biopic or a documentary on their life.

We have tried to do just that. Below are five inspirations whose stories will be better if told to the world in detail.

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#1 Yuvraj Singh

No modern cricketer deserves a biopic more than Yuvraj Singh.

Charming, dewy-eyed boy of splendid talent who hit six sixes in the 2007 T20 World Cup. There's so much to express there already! Then becoming the Player of the Tournament in India's epochal 2011 World Cup win while suffering from a tumor in his left lung - what could be more inspirational than that?

The fight against cancer, the comeback (both the initial struggles and the final rise), the Natwest final, the camaraderie with Dhoni, his love of performing against Australia, and the struggles in the IPL and Test cricket - it might need two parts to showcase everything but it has all the ingredients of a blockbuster.

Sure, replicating that high back-lift, that daunting walk to the crease, the diving catches and the run-outs, and especially those classy front-foot lofts would be a task and a half for any actor. But that's what they have to do to let the next generation know that when Yuvraj Singh was on song, the world stopped and admired.

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#2 Palwankar Baloo

Not many know about him, which is all the more reason Palwankar Baloo deserves a biopic.

He was, by many accounts, India's first Dalit cricketer and one of the greatest to ever grace the game. His cricketing journey started in 1892, when the European cricketers at the Poona Club hired him to manage the field, roll and mark the pitch, dig the nets, and eventually asked him to bowl to them for their practice.

The hundreds of hours of toil here made him one of the most crafty left-arm spinners in the country, earning him a place in the Hindu Gymkhana side. He led Gymkhana to innumerable wins against local and touring British teams and other religiously-aligned Gymkhanas and was even the best bowler - 114 wickets at an average of 18.84 - on the first tour by an all-India team to England.

But that didn't change how he was treated by his peers due to his caste. During tea breaks, he wasn't allowed to drink in the pavilion and instead had to drink it outside in a disposable cup. He ate at a separate table and washed his face in a corner with the help of only someone of the same caste as him.

A biopic inspired by Ramchandra Guha's meticulous and sometimes heartbreaking 'A Corner of a Foreign Field', including details of India's social fabric at the time, Baloo's political life, and his role in marginally pulling down the caste barriers could inspire and educate millions of Indians, both youth and old.

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#3 Virat Kohli

Contrary to Baloo's case, there are hundreds of millions of people who know, love, and admire Virat Kohli. If he is up for it, there's a very high chance that there will be a biopic on his life, and rest assured it will be a major hit.

More than a biopic on his on-field achievements, however, we need documentation on his off-field journey. Fans have seen and heard interviews on the subject, read books, and watched him bat for hours, but these are all scattered and disorganized pieces of a story that's certainly much bigger than anticipated.

How does a modern-day superstar with 200 million followers on Instagram manage his life outside of cricket? Why is he 'the' Virat Kohli while others aren't? We know that he was rebilious as a youngster, but why? How did the transformation happen? How does he manage unconditional criticism and love?

Also, with his journey, the biopic can display India’s journey as a cricketing nation, the focus on fitness, the fast-bowling program, the historic wins, and the crushing losses - it would be a roller-coaster ride worth watching.

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#4 Bhagwath Chandrasekhar

In modern cricket, a wrist-spinner is rested from the playing 11 if he or she has an injury on their non-bowling hand. Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, or 'Chandra', played 58 Tests, bowled almost 16,000 balls and picked up 242 wickets for India in Test cricket with his bowling arm permanently withered due to a childhood polio attack.

A handicap that would have held back almost any other person in the world from even trying cricket, Chandra used it to his advantage at the highest level of the sport. He devised a medium-pacer-like runup followed by a whipping leg-break action with more reps on the ball than most of his counterparts. As a result, the ball would bounce and move sharply off the pitch, leaving the batters dumbfounded.

Chandra tredded the fine line between being erratic and unplayable like a maverick, saving the best of the latter in matches of utmost importance. His 6/38 in England in 1971 and 12/104 in 1977-78 in Australia were the pivots behind India's most famous first series win and maiden Test win in the respective countries.

If that isn't worth a biopic, then what is?

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#5 Ravichandran Ashwin

Of course, there are hundreds of other legends like Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, and Anil Kumble whose biopics would be magical.

But Ravichandran Ashwin is a cricketer who most people won't see as biopic material, and that's what makes the story important. His mindset behind running the non-striker out and his opinions on the 'spirit of cricket' deserve more than just a few tweets. And so do the facts of how he's a legend but still a student of the game.

How he plans for every batter, why he was the one who happily retired himself out in the recent IPL 2022 and broke the taboo for other teams, why he watches and publicly celebrates women's cricket more than any other international cricketer - the answer to these questions can't be summarized in interviews.

A biopic on his intelligence, struggles and determination would give a different perspective to cricket movies while being just as sweet as any other cricketer's.

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