Already clocking 145 km/hr on the speed gun several times in the ongoing Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand, Kamlesh Nagarkoti is now the talk of the town in the cricketing world. His blink-and-you-miss-it bowling action and the skiddy run up has garnered attention of all cricket fans as well as of former players.
Impressed by him, Sourav Ganguly has already asked Virat Kohli to keep a keen eye on him. In the commentary box, former Windies pacer Ian Bishop also kept reiterating how great his bowling action was.
A resident of Jaipur, Kamlesh was scouted by Surender Singh Rathod, a BCCI accredited cricket coach, from one of the playing grounds in the city. Surendra, who went onto become his coach, was impressed by the boy’s dedication as he saw Kamlesh diving, while fielding, on a rough outfield, injuring himself in the process. Kamlesh’s on-field heroics convinced Surendra to watch the game in its entirety.
After the match was over, Surendra approached Kamlesh’s brother and told him to bring his younger brother for coaching at his academy. Soon, Kamlesh was training at Surendra’s academy.
Under Rathod’s guidance, Kamlesh moved up through the Rajasthan and BCCI age group system, impressing with both bat and ball.
According to Rathod, Kamlesh always had the raw pace and his quick bowling action was an added advantage. With his inswingers, his go-to ball, Kamlesh used to dismantle the stumps of the batsmen at will at the domestic level.
When Kamlesh got rejected at the Rajasthan Under-14 cricket team trials, he realised that he has to polish his skills further. That is when he started working on his accuracy and decided to bring in more variations. He learnt how to bowl the outswingers and started generating more bounce off the pitch
Next time when Nagarkoti went for the trials for the Under-14 team in Rajasthan, he was a complete package. Soon he became a regular in the Rajasthan Under-14, Under-16 and then the Under-19 team.
In 2017, he was selected for the Indian Under-19 team that was going to tour England. Nagarkoti went onto become the leading wicket-taker in that series. He was also part of the Indian Under-23 team for the Asia Cup.
Kamlesh made his debut for his state Rajasthan in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the domestic 50-over tournament in India, last year and ended up taking a hat-trick against Gujarat
Already leading the pace attack for India in New Zealand, along with Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh is expected to churn out one great performance after another and keep on hurling deliveries over 145 km/hr as India tries to win their fourth ICC Under-19 World Cup.
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