V. Yashveer jumped in delight in a rather serious England nets session where the likes of Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley and James Anderson along with others were sweating it out under the watchful eyes of coach Brendon McCullum on Tuesday morning.
The Englishmen were already facing the heat with the temperature rise, beads of sweat dripping down their forehead and their faces turning red. And the 17-year-old net bowler from the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) ruffled feathers for a brief moment.
Root let out a cry, Yashveer clapped and punched the air in delight as a flighted delivery knocked out the off stump of the former England captain. The youngster couldn’t hide his temptation to celebrate what he calls a ‘special moment’ in his young cricketing career.
It all started with Root playing the sweep shot to the left-arm spinner. The premier batsman was successful on a couple of occasions and then grunted when another sweep shot attempt went for a top edge.
After engaging in a spin battle for a considerable period, Root asked the bowler to flight up a delivery. Yashveer obliged, and on bowling a flighted one, Root leaned forward, trying to reach the pitch of the delivery, but the ball spun past him and knocked the top of the off pole. A bowler’s delight!
“It was a very special moment for me and I will remember this for the rest of my life. It was a dream to bowl to a batsman like Joe Root and how many times will I get an opportunity like this in my life... To meet him was in itself an incredible feeling and to get him out is very special,” Yashveer told Sportstar.
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“Root was trying to play the sweep and after a while, he asked me to bowl the flighted delivery but he got out. I bowled 10 overs to him, and it was a very enriching experience. I wasn’t afraid to bowl to an international batsman like Root and took it as a challenge.”
A resident of Amberpet in Hyderabad, Yashveer, who scalped 20 wickets in the 2023 Vijay Merchant Trophy has an action similar to that of India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
When asked if is trying to emulate Jadeja, he said: “This is my natural action and I don’t copy any cricketer. I don’t have any role models as such. I play cricket because I am passionate about the game and I love being on the field.
“Of course, the dream is to play for India, but right now I want to qualify for U-19 and wait for the trials to begin. I want to do well for my state team and eventually play for India.”
A student of the Bhavan’s Sri Aurobindo college, Yashveer’s father Rajkumar who works as a co-ordinator with an architecture company said that his son started playing cricket at the age of eight.
“We have always supported him and our support will always be there with him. The upcoming trials will be very important and I wish one-day Yashveer plays for India.”
And on Tuesday by castling a man who has played more than 100 Test matches, scored 30 international centuries and has 11416 runs under his belt, Yashveer has only fuelled his dream of playing for India.
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