Angkrish Raghuvanshi has limitations, but he won't let them come in his way

Angkrish Raghuvanshi has big dreams.

"To obviously don the India jersey," he told the IPL website, "but also to wear it like no one has ever done before. Everyone will look at me and say I'm different."

For the record, he has already done that at the Under-19 level in 2022, when India won the World Cup, and he was their highest run-getter. Rahul Dravid, who has spent a portion of his coaching career shepherding the young talent in this country, often makes the point that success in age-group cricket cannot be the end goal; that it might even be detrimental to spend too much time there. You've already aced the challenges here. Look for a new one. Otherwise you'll never grow.

Raghuvanshi is still only 18 years old. So he could have played this year's Under-19 World Cup too. But he has left that life behind. Over the past six months, he has broken into the toughest team in Indian domestic cricket - Mumbai - and has made a splash in the IPL as well.

Batting at No. 3 for Kolkata Knight Riders against Delhi Capitals, he made 54 off just 27 balls. He played that game as an Impact Player, so he spent the rest of the night in the dugout while flashing big toothy grins, which was good because by the time Shah Rukh Khan came over to ruffle his hair and pull him into a bear hug, he had had plenty of practice looking magnificently cute.

"It was really special," Raghuvanshi said. "Earlier, I wasn't sure if he even knew my name, but now he does. I've been watching him on TV from childhood. So to be with him like this feels good."

Raghuvanshi was born in Delhi in 2005 to a family where he would have stuck out like a sore thumb if he hadn't picked up a sport. His mother Malika used to play basketball. His father Avneet used to play tennis. His uncle Sahil Kukreja used to play cricket, and that's whom he went to stay with when he was 11 years old.

A million things have to go right for anyone to live any dream, let alone one as fanciful as becoming a professional sportsperson. One of those things, for Raghuvanshi, is the desire to be better than he was the day before. That is how he ended up on the radar of people like Dinesh Lad, who has coached Rohit Sharma, and Abhishek Nayar, who has been with him since his Mumbai Under-16 days.

"It's his work ethic; his ability to work hard is his strongest suit," Nayar said on Sunday. "A lot of people talk about skill as something that's really important. But what matters for me is the willingness to work hard because that is a sort of talent too, and not everyone possesses it. So yes, skill is something you can develop if you have the talent of working hard and try to achieve the goal.

"I think that's something that stands out with him, and it always has for a number of years - the attitude to go get it, the attitude to want to get better and the attitude to chase his dreams. He may not have been the most gifted player or a gifted athlete, but I think his approach to the game and the sacrifices he has made is part of why he is [special] and taking the first step in his career."

There is a certain gravity to cricketers who fit this bill; those who can compensate for a lack of star quality with nihilistic amounts of determination. Who cares if I don't look like a natural? I'll still find a way to succeed. I am never giving up. Nayar won a lot of people over because he was exactly like that, which may well explain why he was drawn to Raghuvanshi in the first place.

The focus now, for both of them, will be in making sure that he has levelled off from the high of his IPL debut and starts looking ahead. Because one good innings is hardly enough, and, until that one good innings, his highest score in T20 cricket was 32* off 31, and his career strike rate was 116.

Raghuvanshi has the raw material to make his dream come true. There was a back-foot punch through point for four against Anrich Nortje early in his innings that highlighted how he has already learned how to use his height and his reach to his advantage. More than that, he didn't flinch against the quality of bowling he was up against, nor did he second guess himself while he was out there.

His reverse scoop for six is doing the rounds on social media, but when he attempted it for the first time, he was very nearly caught by short third running back. There was reason for him to pull back, but Raghuvanshi has worked on that shot for a very long time. He knows its importance. So he went for it again, and it's likely he'll keep going for it.

"[Raghuvanshi] has been playing the reverse scoop at the nets," Nayar said, "And he has also played it in the Under-23 circuit in red-ball cricket in one of the hundreds that he got for Mumbai. So I feel it's something he has worked very hard on, and every player brings power in their game differently. He isn't necessarily the biggest hitter of the ball, but then, having different areas he can access is something that will play to his advantage."

KKR have got a good young player on their hands, one who seems to respect the fact that he has limitations but isn't willing to let it stop him.