Angkrish Raghuvanshi - Eden's joy from Delhi via Mumbai
And just like that, the generation of cricketers who grew up inspired by Kapil Dev's India's triumph at the 1983 World Cup is done. It's time for the new crop - one that took up the sport after seeing MS Dhoni lift the title after 28 years, in 2011.
Now, we have Angkrish Raghuvanshi, an 18-year-old pioneer of this new wave. He doesn't veil his skills behind shyness. Instead, he starts his IPL career with a swivel-pull to fine leg against a bowler who reeks of rapid pace, Anrich Nortje.
The handlebar mustache doesn't scare him so he hits Nortje for another four on the next ball, this time, a sublime backfoot punch. Three more fours and three sixes (including a reverse swat versus Rasikh Salam) later, he gets to his maiden 50, becoming the youngest to get to the milestone with a strike rate of 200.
Nortje gets him out eventually, making him mistime a ramp shot (not a defensive push or drive, obviously) but by that time, he has made Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) fans look at him with googly eyes and Google his name.
'One wicket means two' in the top order has been the identity of their favorite team for the past decade. Who's this new number three playing counter-attack?
"My first memory of cricket, I think, is the 2011 World Cup. In our colony there used to be a TV and my father used to watch it with everyone. We used to play cricket on the road and come and watch the matches in between. So I think when India won that everyone was so happy, so it just stuck with me," he tells Sportskeeda.
That's where he came from. The collective joy of the community stuck so hard that being one of the best in school cricket in Gurgaon no longer satisfied him, he found it too easy.
At the age of 11, he was already thinking of playing for India and wanted to go there the "tough way", i.e., through Mumbai.
Going through the Mumbai grind
Angkrish's mother, Malika has represented India in basketball; his father, Avneesh has been a professional tennis player; and his younger brother, Krishang, a Jannik Sinner fan, has been living with Malika in Spain since 2022 to pursue tennis professionally. But Angkrish's eagerness came as a surprise even for a family that breathes sport.
Then, another family member, Malika's brother Sahil Kukreja, a former opening batter for Mumbai, came through and introduced Angkrish to Abhishek Nayar, the erstwhile Indian international, who was running an academy in the city at the time.
Angkrish described finding Nayar as an "amazing, amazing guy" at first impression, whose cricketing methods immediately resonated with him.
"We were playing a match simulation (on his first day) and I got 35-odd runs in that," Angkrish remembers. "I was playing under 14, and big kids were bowling to me. So after I got out, he called me to the nets on the side to bat and put me against the bowling machine. The first ball he bowled was an inswinging yorker and I hit my toe and I started crying because of the pain! My first experience in front of him was crying, but then he just told me how to go about it, how I could be mentally tough and face that bowling machine and I just felt so good."
Within days, he, along with Nayar were able to convince the parents to allow their 11-year-old boy to permanently move to Mumbai. He lived with Kukreja for a week but as that house was far from the training ground, Nayar asked him to move in.
Since then, Nayar has taken care of Angkrish's diet, schooling (from the Swami Vivekananda School under the renowned coach Dinesh Lad), and, of course, cricket.
Ask Angkrish how he managed to stay away from his family for so long, being restricted to video calls and messages, and Nayar's impact becomes clear.
"I felt like Abhishek sir is my family so I didn't stay away from family for too long. He treated me like I was his family and every day used to motivate me to work harder," he says.
Angkrish was soon dominating age-group cricket in Mumbai. Growing up, he played multiple sports, including football (he's an avid Manchester United fan!) and tennis. But under Nayar, cricket took over his life.
"My entire day just went into cricket, just practicing and training and fitness and thinking about the game and just instilling good habits," he said. "The exact schedule is a secret though!"
At 16 he got called up to India's squad for the 2022 Under-19 World Cup and scored 278 runs in six innings - the highest for India - at an average of 46.33. It was his first breakthrough, one that announced that he was going to go places.
Shining as a Knight
KKR's identity has always been to combine big-name overseas quality with young, underrated talent from India. But for years, the latter had been confined to bowlers, from Kuldeep Yadav to Suyash Sharma and now Harshit Rana. Shubman Gill, another Under-19 World Cup star, was an exception until he was released in 2022.
Angkrish's arrival for the base price of ₹20 lakh (Nayar, who is now the assistant coach at KKR would have played a role) changed that and so much more.
The bouncer that Nortje tested him with on the first ball in Vizag was a clear indication. Almost every KKR batter struggled against pacy bumpers last year, making it the go-to plan for bowlers. But Angkrish, thanks to his height, had a strike rate of 300 at that length - the joint-best for the franchise.
The teenager got his chances because KKR's last season's captain Nitish Rana got injured at the start. So, now, instead of an experienced spin-hitter who likes to take a bit of time, KKR was sending a fearless 18-year-old with the ability to tonk pace who was striking at 159.18 in the powerplay. It was the perfect sucker punch.
And the scoops, laps, and powerful flicks played with confidence added another new layer. This is where you saw Nayar's influence. He has worked with so many cricketers and is the one Dinesh Karthik credits for his second coming as an unpredictable finisher in T20 cricket. Angkrish was a mirror of his philosophy.
"[Abhishek ] focuses a lot on putting me in tough situations during practice," Angkrish says. "The only thing he sir tells me during the game is just to believe in what I have practiced and enjoy myself and express myself in front of the world. He wants to make all players 360. So not just those shots, but all sorts are a huge part of his practice."
The environment couldn't have been more perfect for him.
"I found my game getting better [at KKR]," he says. "All players in our team wanted to be match-winners for the team. So I think the main thing I learned is that whenever you play a game just go out and try to find a way to win the game for your team."
Angkrish had to make way for Rana when he returned to full fitness near the end of the group stage. But the franchise understood the importance of his 163 runs in seven innings before that. After they beat Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens in his absence, they allowed him to give the post-match speech.
Angkrish, being the eloquent rockstar of his new generation, stood in front of head coach Chandrakant Pandit and co-owner Venky Mysore and credited each contributor to the win, drawing applause and appreciation at every sentence.
"All the coaches especially Gautam sir and our captain Shreyas bhaiya, they made the team culture such that there are no stars, everyone is just a KKR player, there are no seniors, there are no juniors, everyone is equal," he says. "That helped all the young players to just bond with everyone."
He might have not matched his teammates in stats, but intent and impact-wise, he was right up there among the crucial cogs behind KKR's charge to the final.
Good human
Last year, Angkrish made his List-A debut for Mumbai and scored a fifty in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He describes it as "very special" and wants to continue contributing to the "biggest domestic team in India". In an interview with IPL, he said he ultimately wants to don the India jersey "like no one has ever done before".
For KKR, IPL 2024 has taught him to not think too much about the future. So, he's happy to continue improving his game and polishing his routines. When asked about the changes he might be planning to bring in his game next season, he replied with a brilliant, "When you see me next on TV, you will know!" with a smile.
He doesn't mind comparisons with Gill and feels almost every youngster at his age tries to emulate the now Gujarat Titans captain's batting. AB de Villiers was his early role model (for obvious reasons) and now he looks up to Virat Kohli as well.
"The amount of games he's won for India... if I could even come a little close to what he's done for India, that would be amazing," he says.
But that's not it. There's a lot outside cricket that doesn't meet the eye.
After KKR's match against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium, Avneesh shared a fan-made video on his Instagram. In it, he was seen trudging back to the dressing room after getting out for 32 (26). This was the game before he was dropped and he had played his only scratchy knock, where not much went his way.
But then he returned, without gear, to fulfill a kid's request of holding a match ball. He sneaked it to him through the railing and gestured for him to remain quiet about it. What Avneesh wrote as the caption for the story made a lot of sense.
"(Abhishek Nayar,) dear sir. Your first words to us were, 'I want to make him a good human and then a cricketer'. Thank you. Seems like [a] plan on track."
After the U-19 World Cup, which was rife with anxiety and logistical issues due to constant Covid-19 breakouts, coach VVS Laxman described Angkrish as "everyone's best friend".
It's part of the broadcasters' job to take mid-innings interviews. But when Angkrish gave his first to Harsha Bhogle, before answering his question, he gave a courteous, "Hi, how are you? I am excited to speak with you" and spoke with such splendor that the interviewer seemed to be catching his breath.
And then, when KKR won the title, he ran out from the pavilion, not alone like a star member of one of the best T20 15s in the world, but with thousands of his followers on his now-viral Instagram Live breathing the moment with him.
"I was so excited," he says. "The only thing I wanted to do was share my joy with everyone."
He may not realize it yet but the community joy he experienced on April 2, 2011, he gave some of it back on May 26, 2024. And given how his cricket's shaping up with KKR, there's a lot more where that came from.