From each India under-19 World Cup squad only a couple of players go on to play senior international cricket. History shows that the majority of the U-19 boys successful at the senior level have been batters and the odd spinner.
So for fast bowlers, what gives? The answer: raw pace. As former India pacer Karsan Ghavri says: “You can learn other things, like control and movement, but if you are not 135 plus, it’s difficult to do well in international
From each India under-19 World Cup squad only a couple of players go on to play senior international cricket. History shows that the majority of the U-19 boys successful at the senior level have been batters and the odd spinner.
So for fast bowlers, what gives? The answer: raw pace. As former India pacer Karsan Ghavri says: “You can learn other things, like control and movement, but if you are not 135 plus, it’s difficult to do well in international cricket.”
For the recent success in Tests, India owe a lot to their quality pace attack studded with a number of bowlers capable of going over 135kph. And that is why the performance of Rajvardhan Hangargekar will be keenly monitored.
The 19-year-old Maharashtra bowler picked up five wickets in six games of the under-19 World Cup. Good but not great. But what made everyone sit up was the speed gun flashing 141.7kph in the semi-final against Australia. Hangargekar’s had clocked 139 kph earlier in the tournament. So this was no fluke.
The opening bowler, who is from Tuljapur in Osmanabad district, caught the eye for generating sharp pace from a bustling run-up. Hangargekar’s mentor and fitness trainer, Tejas Matapurkar, calls him “stallion”.
For his energy and aggression, Matapurkar had chosen the bowler from Maharashtra’s under-16 squad. In the four years Hangargekar has been with the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s strength and fitness trainer, his speed has increased from 110-115kph to 141.7kph.
“Fast bowlers are like race horses, they are as delicate as they are strong. Even with a grade 1 injury, they will not be able to play but a spinner and a batsman can play with a grade 2 injury. So, they have to be handled very well, training and managing their workload is most important,” said Matapurkar.
“Stallion: that’s what I call him, his fitness level is very good, which we saw at the World Cup.”
The next step in Hangargekar’s development happened at the Veerangan Cricket Academy, near Pune’s Lohegaon airport, under coach Mohan Jadhav. “Two years ago, when he came to the academy, he was bowling at 127 kph. Has improved a lot. His fitness level is going up due to his work with Matapurkar and we worked on his skill level.”
Jadhav also worked on Hangargekar’s run-up. “He used to run at one speed from start to the delivery stride,” he said. That would often lead to short-pitched deliveries. “We made his steps shorter and made it more rhythmic, synchronised his action and taught him to line up his wrist position. We also worked on his speed and accuracy,” said Jadhav, who is also in charge of the Dilip Vengsarkar Cricket Academy on the outskirts of Pune.
Matapurkar ensures there is no over exertion. At every training session, a specific number of overs are allowed for skill training. The idea is to have the player at his best from the first ball. That’s why Hangargekar bowls two overs before every innings.
“In the workload management programme, we have made him bowl between eight to 20 overs a day. From that we found out in which phase he is clocking good speed and accuracy, when his body is in good rhythm. We found out that he bowls at his best from the third over onwards. So, we have asked him to bowl two overs before the innings in the warm-up. His 13th ball should be in the game. He does that before every game now. In the 15 minutes he gets before the innings, he bowls 12 balls, so that his body is supple and he goes into the game in the right mindset.”
Not just batters, even the umpires at the ICC Under-19 World Cup would not forget Hangargekar in a hurry. Some of them took painful blows on their elbows being hit by his bowling hand while he loaded up in his delivery stride.
That is a problem that had Jadhav surprised. “Never,” he said when asked if this happened to Hangargekar in club games. “I felt, the umpires were also standing with their elbows outside. If you are standing like that you are going to get hurt. Jump uska thoda peecha hai (his take-off for the jump is a little behind normal). We also stand at the umpire’s position at nets to check the speed gun but never had that problem. I think the umpire was standing where he takes the jump, one step back or forward would have been fine.”
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