5 young Indian cricketers who owe their success to their fathers ft. Harshit Rana, Shubman Gill
There was a time when parents would stop their kids from pursuing cricket as a career option. Most of the parents would be concerned about the low pay in cricket, injuries bringing early end to careers and no future after retirement.
However, things have changed now. Cricketers are among the richest sportspersons in the world. Not only have the salaries of the players increased significantly, but their earnings through brand endorsements have sky-rocketed as well.
Hence, there are many parents, who push their children to make a career in cricket now. Here's a list of five young Indian cricketers, who owe their success to their fathers.
#1 Harshit Rana
Harshit Rana received his maiden national call-up this month. He first made it to the T20I squad for the Zimbabwe tour as a replacement for Nitish Kumar Reddy and then earned a place in the ODI squad for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka.
Soon after earning a place in the ODI team, Harshit thanked his father with a special Instagram post. Before that, in an interview with PTI, Harshit disclosed how his father helped him in his journey and said:
"I believed in working hard but whenever I used to get hurt after being overlooked in age-group teams, I would sit in my room and start sobbing. My father Pradeep never ever gave up hope."
Harshit also mentioned his father Pradeep Rana as one of the three people he was indebted to in his beautiful journey apart from coaches Amit Bhandari and Gautam Gambhir.
#2 Shubman Gill
Shubman Gill's father Lakhwinder worked as a farmer. Hailing from Fazilka area of Punjab, Shubman is now the vice-captain of the Indian T20I team and the captain of the Gujarat Titans IPL team.
The journey has not been easy for Shubman, but his father Lakhwinder supported him in every way he could. In 2007, Lakhwinder decided to relocate 300 kms away from Chak Khere Wala to Mohali so that Shubman could train properly. Lakhwinder missed his work and family functions for Shubman's future, and now, his son is a world-class cricketer.
#3 Nitish Kumar Reddy
Nitish Kumar Reddy received a place in India's T20I squad for the recent series against Zimbabwe. However, the youngster missed the tour due to an injury. Reddy made it to the squad after winning the Emerging Player of the Season award in IPL 2024.
Nitish comes from a middle-class family in Visakhapatnam. His father Mutyala Reddy got a transfer to Rajasthan when Nitish was just eight and few weeks away from starting his camp. Much to everyone's surprise, Mutyala left his job so that he could help his son make it big in cricket.
“Amid all the criticism, my father somehow believed that his son is going to make big," Nitish said in a chat with News18 CricketNext.
During the same chat, Nitish mentioned that now he is a successful player, the same people call him and his father for dinner and praise them now.
#4 Sarfaraz Khan
Sarfaraz Khan first announced his arrival in IPL 2015 with some splendid performances for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru team. While his IPL career did not pick up after that, he dominated first-class cricket and broke into India's Test team this year.
After his debut, Sarfaraz disclosed that his father Naushad Khan had been helping him become a cricketer since he was six. When Sarfaraz received his maiden Test cap, Naushad became quite emotional.
Naushad himself ran a club in John Bright tent at a ground, and Sarfaraz would sometimes sleep in it when he was a toddler. After Sarfaraz grew up, Naushad noticed his ability to sweetly time the ball and decided to dedicate his life to make his son a player.
#5 Abhishek Sharma
Abhishek Sharma's father Rajkumar has played a huge role in the young all-rounder's success. Rajkumar has always been there for Abhishek through his ups and downs in the cricketing journey.
Abhishek got out for a duck on T20I debut against Zimbabwe earlier this month, but Rajkumar reminded him that his six-hitting ability had got him to where he was. The youngster followed his father's advice and ended up scoring a century in his second T20I.
Similarly, during IPL 2024, Abhishek helped Sunrisers Hyderabad qualify for the final, with a spell of 2/24 in Qualifier 2 after bowling a total of three overs only in the league stage. After that spell, Abhishek mentioned that his father urged him to work hard on his bowling over the last two years, and those practice sessions helped him perform well when it mattered the most.