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The ones you don't know in Challenger's trophy.

Filed under Cricket Article

Tendulkar was there... so was Yuvraj and so was Raina.

Being a die hard cricket fan, it has always been interesting to me to know more about the upcoming cricketers - the ones who are unknown as yet but we all will be talking about them in days to come.

Following are some cricketers that you may be hearing about very soon. But as of now, they are only tagged as "The future Indian stars".

Ravindra Jadeja :-

If you have the ability to hit sixes which should earn at least 10, if you have the guile to bowl 7-8 cheap overs and effect runouts, and then if you bat at No.3 for your under-19 team to Pakistan who beat them 4-0 in ODI series and 2-0 in test, at their home in September 2006 - You got to be close to Indian national team.

And there's where Ravindrasingh Anirudhsingh Jadeja (his full name) or Ravi Jadeja in short finds himself after been selected to play in the challenger's trophy from 1st of October at Chennai. And what's more - he is the only outsider who has been given a chance to rub shoulders with Sachin and Sehwag as Ravindra Jadeja has been selected in India Blue team - which is almost a copy of present Indian cricket team.

Ravindra Jadeja's under-19 coach - Lalchand Rajut was asked to comment on this young boy from Navagam Khed in Saurashtra and he just said - "Our team were 16 for 3 in that last match and watching Ravi hit such huge sixes at the Gaddaffi stadium was tense but heart warming". Batting at No. 3, Ravindra Jadeja blasted 3 sixes and 14 fours in his 114 ball 94 and made sure Pakistan under-19 team wins nothing against Indian touring side, but lose everything.

Just for information - Ravindra Jadeja has the date of birth as 6th December 1988.

Tanmay Srivastava :-

Now it may sound exaggerating but this cricketer is just 17 years old and made a trilling 213 off 250 balls on that under-19's tour of Pakistan in September 2006 and showed that he is another Mohammad Kaif in making. The reason I compare Tanmay Srivastava with Kaif because this boy from Kanpur - Uttar Pradesh don't like hitting mindless sixes and give a chance to the opposition. He hit 26 fours in that innings at Peshawar and only concentrated on staying at the wicket, taking very sharp but well judged singles and consolidating India's score, which eventually stopped at 611 for 9 declared. Pakistan Under-19 team only managed a total of 371 runs after batting twice.

The plus point with Toshu (the nick name of Tanmay Srivastava) is that he is also a medium pace bowler. Indian youngsters have been guilty of taking the easier way of bowling slow left arms or off spinners but very few of them want to be a medium pace bowling all rounder. With a height of almost 6 feet and gowing up as cricketer in India at a time when nearly all the new ones are getting a chance at the International level, Tanmay's days may not be too far.

Date of birth : 7 November 1989.

Piyush Chawla :-

It's been long since Indian cricket produced a conventional leg spinner. They say Leg spin is a difficult art to master but the fact remains that India has been the producer of best spinner over the years. Spin bowlers have been our strength since we started to play International cricket.

But another fact is we have not had a single leg spinner for almost 10 years now. The last I can remember was called Narendra Hirwai - who made a phenomenal debut against West Indies by taking 16 wickets in his very first test match but then faded away. Another one coming to my mind was Laxman Shivramakrishnan - whom you might hear doing TV Commentary these days...

Both of them were special talents but couldn't flourish because of some bad selection and few other reasons. Piyush Chawla is someone who has impressed one and all, be it at under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka, as the captain of under-19 to Pakistan who beat them 4-0 and 2-0

at their home and also as someone who managed to bowled Sachin Tendulkar at the 2005 Challenger's trophy.... apart from making some very useful runs.

The space here is too short and the story on Piyush Chawla so long that I better give you link to this another article on Piyush Chawla and get on other other Indian rising stars..

C Rahu :-

Our country is so big that you try to find one good cricketer and you get 50. C Raghu or full name - Chandrashekar Raghu certainly made news when he was playing for Karnataka under-13 and then under-16 but then somehow lost his touch.

Now this boy has grown up to be a young Indian cricketer of nearly 25 years and probably is making his last try to break into Indian national cricket team. And the start has been very good as C Raghu - the off break bowler and right handed hard hitting batsmen has started the season with a century against Western Australia - captained by Australian opener Justin Langer who is currently touring South India as a first class tour.

And now Chandrashekhar Rahgu has been given a chance in India Red side in the challenger's trophy at Chennai.

Lets wish him good Luck.

And just for information - I wrote a similar article when Dinesh Mongia was selected into Indian team for Malaysia tri-series and then ICC Champions trophy from 7th October in India, where I tried to elaborate some other cricketers who should have been given a chance in place of Mongia.

I have to admit here that Dinesh Mongia played a good hand in the only match that he got - against Australia at Kinrara Oval in Malaysia on 22nd of September, but I never had a doubt in Dinesh Mongia as a batsmen. He needs to impress as a bowler and and more importantly - as a ODI fielder. I am sure he will get few more chances, but what's the harm in noticing some more fresh talents as Rohit Sharma, Subramaniam Badrinath and Reetinder Singh Sodhi - all of whom has been included into the Challenger's trophy 2006. Here's that article.

Its Only Cricket

The ones you don't know in Challenger's trophy.

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