Haseeb Hameed’s connection to India is no secret now as he made waves with his sparklings knocks in his first three Tests for England in international cricket. News broke that the 19-year-old was groomed in India and trained under Vidyadhar Paradkar, a Mumbai coach, when he visited the country in 2011.
While most 14-15-year-olds at that stage are travelling on holiday with their families, and an ideal itinerary on a holiday to India would have included a visit to the Taj Mahal, the only reason why Haseeb travelled to India was to work on the intricacies of his game.
He would come back to India a whole 5 years later, again to train under Vidyadhar, a mere 11 months before his international cricket debut. It is fascinating to see how the coach viewed him as a youngster and how Haseeb thanked him for all his efforts.
Also read: Kohli’s tweet in support of Anushka is year’s best
On his first visit, Vidyadhar focused on the basics of the game with him. He spoke about the importance of playing with a straight bat, watching the ball and the need to rotate strike. He mentioned that the only issue with Haseeb's game at that stage was the fact that he was not playing very straight, and the check drive would be the perfect solution to that.
"I gave him some cone drills: keep your bat straight and hit the cone, keep your foot on the line of the ball, bring your bat down in a line, and he did it a hundred times. He would put a ball on a cone and try to hit it in all directions of the ground. He played three club matches at that time and remained not out in all of them. Then I knew he would go a long way." Vidyadhar said of Haseeb as a 14-year-old.
5 years later and with a wealth of local cricket under him, Haseeb returned to fine tune his game. "He was a much better batsman the second time he came. I was very sure at that time his Test debut would come soon. The way he would use his bat, the way he would play the ball from mid-off to midwicket with a straight bat” the coach said of him.
He also adds that he was a very inquisitive learner and constantly looked to grow. At the end of his visit, Haseeb left his coach a heartfelt letter expressing his gratitude for everything his coach had done for him. After 3 Tests and 219 runs, the letter already is magical.
As Haseeb’s legend grows, this letter will resurface a number of times to highlight the character traits that surely have him pinned for greatness.
For more cricket news and stories about your favourite cricketers, bookmark Sportskeeda Cricket
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
