Baba Aparajith — Justifying his name

Baba Aparajith with the Man of the Match award at the en of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2012 Quarter Final match between India and Pakistan at Tony Ireland Stadium on August 20, 2012 in Townsville, Australia

Well, what can you say about a young cricketer who has already scored 2 double centuries since the beginning of this season, plus a ton for South Zone as well. Yes, I am referring to the remarkable talent that is Baba Aparajith!

Interestingly, he belongs to a family of doctors, but chose to follow a different track, with motivation from his father. Recently, Indian cricket has come across a number of young and hardworking batsmen. Unmukt Chand, Vijay Zol, Sanju Samson and Mandeep Singh are among the other promising future of Indian batting lineup. But today we are exclusively focusing on Baba Aparajith.

Baba – this term is most commonly used for a baby boy throughout the country. The word Aparajith stands for “being unbeaten”. Given his recent outstanding performances, he is literally proving that he is having the most appropriate name. He is doing a superb job of contributing a lot through his admirable batting and fielding and yet leaving a lot of scope of spreading magic with his bowling as well.

It is really not important whether one plays strictly in a copy book style or just improvises on a ball to ball basis – as far as the runs are appearing on the score board, you are establishing yourself. This is what Baba Aparajith is precisely doing, especially recently. He times his shots very well and has been executing the shots in a rather bold manner, but it is his consistency which has impressed most of his fans.

Another notable factor with Baba is his good running between the wickets. His agility is worth appreciating. What appears fascinating is that he is a quick learner and adopts suitable strategy as soon as the bowling change occurs. That is how he maintains a very good batting average of 58.35 in first class matches. Even in list A matches, his average is pretty good – 37.91. Also, he quickly develops a tuning with the batsmen at the other end and shuffles the strike, giving equal opportunity to the fellow batsmen. Many appreciate the way he moves his feet to strengthen his stroke play.

Now let us have a quick look at his profile. Baba Aparajith was born in Chennai on 08-07-1994. He is a right hand batsman and a right arm off break bowler. In the IPL, he plays for Chennai Super Kings. He has played for India B, India under-19 and India under-23. In domestic circle, he plays for Tamil Nadu.

He was given the Man of the match award in the quarter final and semifinals of the under 19 world cup. When he started playing at under-19 level in September 2011, he became the third highest scorer with 329 runs and also took 28 wickets. At the age of 19, he has already got a total of 5 centuries to his credit (4 in first class and one in list A match)

He is a visibly cool, contented and composed cricketer, who knows for sure that he has got a good chance to make the Indian squad in the times to come. Also, he is concentrating on his batting, bowling and fielding as well – because he is seemingly aware that there is a tough competition waiting ahead. Samson, Zol and Mandeep are ready to offer a stiff challenge.

In order to cement is place, he will have to perform regularly and he is definitely capable of doing this. This energetic player with a positive attitude is going to offer delightful performances for many years to come. But his simplicity is truly matching with his name – Baba! And we hope he remains unbeaten too – Aparajith! He has got to go a long way in the future. We wish him a sparkling career ahead.