Indian cricket's rising star: Baba Aparajith

Not many people have heard of his young boy, but Baba Aparajith is surely the future of the Indian Cricket team. Born on 8th July 1994 at Chennai, Baba Aparajith came into limelight in the under-19 quadrangular series played at Visakhapatnam in October 2011.

Born into a family of doctors, Aparajith was never forced to take up the path his parents had. On the contrary, he was encouraged by his father to play cricket. Baba Aparajith’s father Dr RN Baba always wanted his twins (Aparajith and Indrajith) to play cricket and never forced them in academics, by the son’s own admission. Thus Aparajith grew up with cricketing dreams, idolizing Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, and wanting to “become like them some day”.

In the quadrangular Series at Visakhapatnam, he took 22 wickets in 7 matches, with a best of 5/35 against Sri Lanka on 5th October 2011. He also made 130 runs with a best of 48 not out against Australia U-19 team, thus proving excellent with the bat too. Right on his debut U-19 match, he surprised everyone with an outstanding bowling spell of 5/38 against the Aussies, thus starting his career with a bang.

A right arm off- break bowler and right hand batsman, Baba Aparajith is a talented batting all-rounder. “I enjoy batting more. Of course, I am an all-rounder and bowling is also my strength but I would call myself a batting all-rounder. Or, may be, I can chip in with both bat and ball”.

Currently he is part of Tamil Nadu’s Ranji trophy team. He scored an unbeaten 44 against mighty Delhi in the third Ranji game played at Feroz Shah Kotla from 17th to 20th November. That performance proved that his stellar performance in the U-19 tournament was not a case of good luck but sheer talent and skill.

Baba Aparajith, along with his brother, joined the cricketing academy at the young age of seven and has been dreaming of playing for his country ever since. It is the dream which is shared by several youngsters of the nation. Not just Aparajith, but several youngsters like Unmukt Chand, Sandeep Sharma and Rush Kalaria have impressed greatly in the prestigious trophy, and it is because of their efforts that India beat Sri Lanka in the U-19 finals. Here is hoping that Baba Aparajith’s rise continues in the remainder of the Ranji season and he makes his way into the Indian team.