Chapter 7: Who Is He?
Priya pulled the hatchback over to the side of the entrance of the Mumbai Youth Cricket Academy before turning off the engine. She kissed Aryan on the forehead and told him to just relax and have fun. Priya was glad she could help her kids in whatever endeavors they wanted to pursue.
"Now go and show them what you've got, Aryan," Priya said with a smile, unaware that Aryan was currently considered dead weight at the club.
"I will, Mum," Aryan said before getting out. Priya drove off, and Aryan stood at the entrance for a while, seemingly in a trance, before Rahul, Aryan's friend at the academy, came and smacked him on the back with a kit bag, waking him up.
"Ow, what was that for?" Aryan asked in Hindi. "What are you standing here for? Let's go," Rahul said. Aryan shook his head before walking alongside Rahul as they both went in.
Both Aryan and Rahul changed into their practice whites before they went out onto the maidan. The nets were already set up, but there were not a lot of players since it was a bit early. Aryan was happy with what he saw and decided to do his own specified warm-up routine before the official drills started.
Rahul looked at Aryan doing high-intensity shuttles and said, "Bro, do you want to get tired even before the drills start?" Aryan, teeming with stamina from his System training, said it wouldn't affect him during the actual drills.
After a while, the youth head coach, Mr. Deshmukh, came onto the pitch. "Alright, boys, gather around," he said as most of the players arrived.
"Well, this is the start of a new season selection, and I expect nothing but the utmost best from you in both training and practice matches, and this goes for both the Probables and the Reserves," he said, staring pointedly at Aryan and some of the other kids who were at the bottom of the rankings.
"Now, as you can see, some of the players who were with us last year are no longer here as they have been promoted to the U19 state camp. Because of the performances they put up, they were called up, and so I hope you keep it in mind while training that even during the season, if you perform well enough, you can also be promoted," Mr. Deshmukh said.
While he was still speaking, Aryan stood there with conviction and promised himself that he would be promoted this year because, with the System coupled with his efforts, he could not fail even if he wanted to. "It's uphill from here on," Aryan whispered before concentrating on what Mr. Deshmukh was saying.
"Now bowlers should go to the bowling coach, and batsmen should go to the batting coaches," Mr. Deshmukh spoke again.
After a few seconds, the players split off to their respective nets, all except for Aryan, who stood still. When Mr. Deshmukh saw this, he asked, "Aryan, why are you standing still?"
"Coach, I would like to discuss a role change with you," Aryan said with a blank face.
"Huh, a role change?" Mr. Deshmukh said. "Yes, sir," Aryan responded.
"I'm assuming you want to focus on your bowling since your batting average is single digits," Mr. Deshmukh asked.
"Kind of," Aryan said.
"What do you mean kind of? Do you want to change or not?" Mr. Deshmukh said, his voice raising a bit.
"Well, sir, I do want to continue bowling, but I also want to train as a top-order batsman," Aryan replied.
"Oh? Well, I won't ask any more questions, but you can choose where you want to go first," he said while walking away, clearly skeptical.
With this, Aryan went to the batting coach, Mr. Rathore, who was surprised to see a new face among the regular batsmen. He called Aryan forward and asked why he was there as he had always seen him training with the tail-enders in the bowling department.
"I'm here because of a role change, Coach," Aryan said as he looked at Mr. Rathore, who was staring at Aryan like a tail-ender asking to open the innings was taboo.
"Well then, welcome to Batting 101," he said, drawing a bit of a laugh from the other players. He made Aryan go and join the rest of the team and made them warm up for 15 minutes.
Coach Rathore looked at the clipboard in his hands and said, "Okay, lads, as always, this is what we're gonna do." He started listing the training drills to be done for the day.
Drills:
Warm-Up (15 minutes)
Shadow Practice (20 minutes)
Net Session - Defense (20 minutes)
Net Session - Power Hitting (20 minutes)
Running Between Wickets (20 minutes)
Placement and Gap Finding (20 minutes)
Fitness Training (20 minutes)
Cool Down (15 minutes)
The players listened attentively, and the training for the batsmen began. Aryan stood there a bit tense because he felt he might not do well, but just then, Max spoke.
[System recommends that Host relax as your heart rate has gone up several notches. If the Host is still nervous, he can use the snooping function to check the ratings and info of the other players.]
"Huh, snooping function?" Aryan asked, as he had not seen any new System functions aside from the System shop. He called out the System (telepathically though). The blue screen materialized in front of him before he started navigating his way through. He looked for a few seconds before finding it.
He pressed on it, and the System asked which person it was to scan. Aryan looked for the nearest player, and swish, a blue light from his iris scanned the player, although the player didn't seem to notice—or rather, couldn't.
The player's info displayed after a few seconds.
PLAYER INFO
NAME: VIKRAM SINGH
AGE: 16 (1 week TO 17)
HEIGHT: 1.82m (6'0")
PROFESSION: CRICKETER
STATUS: ACADEMY PLAYER
SYSTEM EVALUATION: A decent youth
PLAYER RATING: 55/100
POSITION: Middle-order Batsman
POTENTIAL: 77
STATS
Timing: 57
Footwork: 52
Vision: 55
Technique: 57
Power: 55
Running: 57
Stamina: 57
Weak Zone: 3 stars
Creativity: 3 stars
SKILLS POSSESSED
Square Cut: 40% Completion
Sweep Shot: 5% Completion
Aryan saw the player's stats and was a bit surprised. "From my stats, it seems I'm better than him," Aryan said, a bit relieved.
He saw a player standing a bit on the far side suddenly and had an idea. He walked up to the player and started a conversation. "Hi."
The player turned and saw Aryan before responding, "Hi, I'm Jeet," he said with a smile.
"Aryan," Aryan said before asking, "Who in the team would you say is the best batsman?" Although Aryan was mostly not used in games after his performances, he would still stay to watch some of the matches and had a rough idea of the good batsmen.
Jeet thought for a while, then said, "It's gotta be Arjun."
"Who's that?" Aryan asked before Jeet pointed to a confident-looking boy of about 5'10" who was standing with a bat leaning against his shoulder with a group of other players.
Aryan looked at him before using the snooping function on him.
PLAYER INFO
NAME: ARJUN KAPOOR
AGE: 16 (4 weeks TO 17)
HEIGHT: 1.80m (5'11")
PROFESSION: CRICKETER
STATUS: YOUTH PLAYER
SYSTEM EVALUATION: A prospect
PLAYER RATING: 60/100
POSITION: Opening Batsman
POTENTIAL: 84
STATS
Timing: 65
Footwork: 59
Vision: 60
Technique: 61
Power: 57
Running: 61
Stamina: 56
Weak Zone: 3 stars
Creativity: 3 stars
SKILLS POSSESSED
Cover Drive: 80% Completion
Pull Shot: 70% Completion
Lofted Drive: 70% Completion
"Wow, nice stats. But wait, mine are still higher than his. Wait, does this mean I'm the best batsman here?" Aryan, in his paradise, was woken up by Coach Rathore, who told Aryan to come and try the 'Target Hitting' drill, which consisted of 3 sessions.
Playing a drive through the cones.
Hitting the ball into specific nets.
Lofting the ball into a bin placed at long-on.
Aryan, a bit shocked, still walked up, feeling a bit confident. "Now, who am I paired with?" Aryan murmured, looking around before the coach pointed to a skinny boy with freckles named Bunty.
Aryan was tempted and used the snooping tool on him and was almost about to shout before his conscience stopped him. This was because the player he was paired with was not a good player. With almost all his stats in the 40s with just Vision in the 50s.
Aryan stepped up. The first try was to drive the ball through a narrow gap of cones from a bowling machine feed. The ball was fired at Aryan, who took a deft step forward and punched the ball crisply through the gap; Bunty, at the non-striker's end, ran and completed the single effortlessly.
"Did Bunty just complete a quick single?" Coach Rathore, who knew the abilities of Bunty, who would struggle to even get bat on ball, was a bit surprised—and also surprised by Aryan's timing, which was shockingly good. Even comparing it with some of the U19s. The same continued for the other tries with Aryan placing the ball beautifully into the nets.
Getting a bit bold, he even played a Helicopter Shot on the 5th attempt for the bin challenge, which sailed in a high arc and landed perfectly inside the bin.
"Nice, Aryan; you too, Bunty," Coach Rathore praised after they were done. Coach Rathore pulled Bunty aside after Aryan had walked off and asked how he kept up so effortlessly.
But he responded, "Coach, I don't know, but Aryan's calls and placement just made running easier." Coach Rathore nodded for a while before dismissing Bunty.
The compliment earned Aryan a bit of stares from the other players as Coach Rathore was not known for giving compliments. The drills ended with Aryan in first place, who wrecked the bin challenge, getting 5 in 5 tries into the bin. Followed by Arjun, who was not all that happy as someone had taken his beloved top spot with 4 in 5.
Jeet, the boy Aryan had asked a question, came in third also with 4 in 5, and this was no surprise to Aryan, who had already used the snooping tool on him and found out that he had a player rating of 58.
Most of the other challenges ended with the same rankings. Aryan even joined the fielding drills with the bowlers and managed to come 5th thanks to his upgraded agility.
"Hey, isn't he that bowler who gets hit for sixes?" a boy said. "Now that you mention it, it is him," another added. "But I heard he isn't all that good, and I've seen him bat a couple of times in the tail, he wasn't this good," another boy said.
Aryan, who heard this conversation, smiled before walking off to the pitch where the T20 practice match was going to take place between the Regulars (Probables) and the Reserves.
Coach Deshmukh called the starting eleven for the Regulars and also the eleven for the Reserve team, with Aryan missing in both lineups.
Before he could continue, Coach Rathore pulled him to the side and asked, "Do you know Aryan?"
"Huh, what are you talking about?" Deshmukh responded. Before remembering the conversation he had with the kid who wanted to change roles. "Oh yeah, what about him?" he said.
"Has he always been this good?" Coach Rathore asked.
"Why, what happened?" Coach Deshmukh asked.
"Well, for the training we did today... well, he topped all categories, whether it was timing, placement, footwork, or even power hitting."
"Really?" Coach Deshmukh asked with a bit of doubt. He had seen Aryan come to the team and hadn't noticed anything particularly special about him, but all of a sudden he is a kid who topped the batting rankings for today.
Coach Deshmukh turned to look at Aryan, who was shadowing a cover drive, unaware of the conversation going on about him.
"Well, I'll put him in this match as a substitute and see if it was just a fluke or we've got a real gem on our hands."
REGULAR'S STARTING XI
Openers: Arjun Kapoor, Rohan Verma
Middle Order: Vikram Singh, Manoj Tiwary, Kabir Khan
All-Rounders: Ravi Bishnoi
Bowlers: Ashish Nehra (Jr.), Varun Aaron (Jr.), etc.
RESERVE'S STARTING XI
Openers: Bunty, Jeet
Middle Order: Suresh, Dinesh, etc.
Bowlers: [Various Reserves]
With this, the players settled into their positions, and the other players who were not selected went and sat on the bench. All this while, Coach Deshmukh couldn't help but steal glances at Aryan. "Well, we'll know, right?" he thought to himself.
Fweeeee
The umpire, who was one of the assistant coaches, started the match. The Reserves batted first.
The Regulars' bowlers played around for a bit, seemingly toying with the Reserve batsmen. They bowled aggressive bouncers and swing deliveries to annoy them. This continued for a while before they decided to get serious.
Arjun, fielding at slip, signaled his bowler. The bowler, a tall pacer named Varun, nodded. He ran in and delivered a crushing yorker. The Reserve opener, Bunty, tried to dig it out but was too slow. The stumps rattled. OUT.
Fweee
10/1 to the Regulars.
The Reserve team already knew they were in for a beating. After the next batsman came in, the Reserve team was pressured by the Regulars, who crowded the bat with fielders.
Jeet, who was on strike, tried to rotate the strike but found no gaps. Frustrated, he tried to loft a spinner over mid-off. He mistimed it completely. The ball went high in the air and was caught easily by Arjun.
25/2.
It turned into a collapse. 30/3. 40/4. 50/5.
Coach Deshmukh, who was still thinking about Coach Rathore's words, decided to try to put Aryan on the pitch.
"Aryan Sharma, pad up. You're going in for Suresh," he said.
Aryan quickly padded up and stood on the boundary line. Some of the bowlers who knew Aryan were a bit perturbed as to why the coach was sending a tail-ender to fix a collapse, as they fully understood his lack of capabilities. But nobody decided to talk as they didn't want to question the coach and get on his bad side.
A wicket fell—Suresh was bowled out—and the substitution was made. Aryan walked to the crease. He quickly told the non-striker, Dinesh, the coach's instructions (which he made up).
"Coach said we should switch to a counter-attacking partnership, with me taking the strike," Aryan said as the pair punched gloves.
The Regulars had their best bowler, Varun, back in the attack. He had seen Aryan walk in and was still annoyed by the rumors he heard about the drills. He walked back to his mark and followed with a long run-up before winding his arm to deliver a thunderbolt.
Fortunately for Aryan, who stood in a perfect stance, the ball was short. Aryan quickly read the length before swiveling and initiating a pull shot.
Aryan's bat speed was like a gust of wind, connecting with the ball sweetly. The ball flew over the square leg boundary for a massive SIX.
The fielders watched in shock. A few balls later, Aryan faced a spinner. He saw the flight and stepped out. The spinner tried to adjust, but Aryan quickly saw what was going on and adjusted his wrists.
The fielders converged to stop a single, thinking he would defend. Aryan, with thoughts circulating in his mind at a ridiculous speed, tried to find what he could do to escape from this field trap.
Just then, a thought passed: the Helicopter Shot. He instantaneously did the move, whipping his wrists at the last second. This threw the fielders off balance as they were rushing in. The ball rocketed past them.
Now clearing the infield, Aryan decided to go for the sure option and lofted it over long-on. The ball went in a high arc before crashing into the sight screen.
CRACK!
The training ground went silent before the Reserve team broke the silence by rushing to the balcony to cheer.
"What the heck just happened?" Arjun thought in his mind as all he saw was Aryan batting like he was possessed before smashing the best bowlers out of the park.
Coach Deshmukh, who was still staring, quickly recovered before looking at Coach Rathore, who also had a 'what the heck was that' look. Coach Rathore smiled, thinking of the team's potential this season.
If Aryan was truly capable of performing at this level consistently, forget the U16s or U19s; the Mumbai Ranji selectors might even call him up.
In the stands, the scout for the Mumbai Ranji team asked the man standing beside him the name of the kid who had just hit that six.
The man checked a list before speaking. "His name's Aryan Sharma. He's 14, turning 15 in a few months. Profile says he's a medium-pacer, but judging from his batting, it would be safe to say he's playing as a batting all-rounder. Might be a role change or an experiment by the coaches."
"Oh, ok. Keep tabs on him and call him up to the state camp if he keeps performing like this in their matches." Said the scout, Mr. Patil.
"Oh ok," said the man.
Aryan, who finally leaned on his bat after running a hard two, was praised by his partner. "Yo bro, what was that?" "That was class." These were some of the comments from Dinesh.
Coach Deshmukh called Coach Rathore and asked, "What should we do now?"
"Let's think about it after the match," Coach Rathore replied.
The umpire restarted the over. From that point, the Reserves attacked relentlessly, although most of the runs were orchestrated by Aryan's impeccable leadership and gap-finding. Although his defensive stats were not the best, they were enough to survive the good balls. With his instructions, he had managed to stabilize the Reserve team's innings.
The Reserve team waited for an opportunity and got one a few overs later as a loose over by one of the Regulars saw Aryan take control. He quickly ordered Dinesh to rotate the strike while he took on the boundary riders.
Arjun tried to bring the field in to pressure him, but Aryan sensed it and played late cuts to pierce the gaps. He quickly saw the space at third man and guided the ball towards that area.
Dinesh didn't disappoint and ran hard, turning ones into twos.
Fweeeeee
The score was now 140/6. The Reserves needed 10 runs off the last over to win the practice match.
The Regular team was a bit shocked that the match could change because of a single player. "The kid's really good," the scout who was watching quietly in the stands murmured to himself.
After the final over started, the bowlers of the main team started to bowl wide yorkers, putting a bit of pressure on Aryan. Aryan went silent for the first few balls, taking singles.
Upon noticing that the bowler had missed his length, mainly because of the pressure, he decided to punish him. Aryan stepped out of his crease to receive the ball.
Aryan, noticing this momentary lapse in length, signaled for a big shot. The bowler delivered a full toss. Aryan didn't disappoint and smashed a defense-splitting drive through the covers.
The Regular team's fielders tried to catch up to the ball but couldn't. Four runs.
Last ball. 4 runs to win.
The bowler ran in and delivered a bouncer. It was too high. The umpire signaled a wide. But wait—it was a No Ball for overstepping.
Free Hit.
Although it was just training, bowling a no-ball meant running laps around the field, and nobody wanted to experience this after a tiring day at training.
Aryan took his stance. He had already discussed with Dinesh that he would finish it.
He tapped his bat three times. He breathed in. The bowler ran up to bowl the Free Hit.
Aryan raised his bat before whipping the ball over the mid-wicket boundary. The ball seemed to go straight up but suddenly traveled further as there was so much power and timing on the shot.
The ball smacked the roof of the clubhouse before falling. The Regular team's bowler was rooted to the spot.
"Siixxxxx!" was the sound that erupted from the mouths of his teammates, who couldn't help it.
Aryan raised his bat to the pavilion before taking a bow.
"Rathore, we've found a diamond," Coach Deshmukh said to Coach Rathore, who was still in shock from the shot.
"Tell Deshmukh to promote the kid to the U19 state camp after he turns 15 in a month," the scout Mr. Patil said before walking off, seemingly impressed by Aryan's performance.
Aryan, who was celebrating, didn't know his fate would change from that day onwards.