Image Credit- CAB
During Bengal’s Ranji Trophy match against Kerala in
Thumba, Akash Deep had just ended a stint and was standing on the boundary when
the entire Bengal team burst into applause, praising him. He had recently been
called up for the first time to the India Test team for the last three matches
against England as a result of his success last season playing red-ball cricket
for Bengal and India A.
“I was hopeful that in the near future I might
get a Test call-up if I keep performing but I didn’t expect that it would come
by the third match itself,” Akash Deep tells PTI from his hotel room in
Thumba.
It was the most recent advancement in the career of
27-year-old Akash Deep, who began as a star tennis-ball all-rounder in Bengal’s
Durgapur before moving on to play first-division cricket in Kolkata, the
Under-23s, and finally first-class cricket. He has also participated in the
Indian Premier League for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Akash Deep, a 15-year-old student at Sasaram
Government School in Bihar, would have laughed if someone had told him he would
become a professional cricket player.
“In Bihar [suspended by the BCCI at the time],
there was no platform and especially from the place where I came from, Sasaram,
playing cricket was a crime,” Akash Deep says. “Lots of parents would
ask their children not to mingle with Akash as he only plays cricket and your
studies would go for a toss.
“But I don’t blame them. What would you have
achieved playing cricket in a place like that? You would be wasting time and
not even become a cricketer, and also ignore academics. Your future would be
ruined and they were worried. So, were my parents.”
Akash Deep has 103 wickets from 29 first-class games
and in two four-day games against England Lions recently, he took 11 wickets,
including two four-wicket hauls.
“Inswing is my stock delivery, but at this level,
you need to have outswing and reverse swing and more importantly need to
control the swing,” he says. “I was in the ODI squad in South Africa
and realised that more than skill, at this level, it is more about mental
strength of being able to execute plans under pressure.”