Rajvardhan Hangargekar of Maharashtra hopes to realize the dream of his late father at the U-19 World Cup in 2022

One of the promising talents to watch in the upcoming ICC U-19 World Cup In the Caribbean is Rajvardhan Hangargekar, a young speed racer from Maharashtra. Rajvardhan is a 19-year-old right-armed handyman who is still warming up for life in India and hopes to achieve his late father’s dream by shining in the West Indies Youth World Cup.

Last year, during the first wave of Covid-19, Rajvardan was still struggling to cope with his father’s grief and his untimely death. He was emotional when talking about senior Hangagka. His dream was to see him for India. Effectiveness.

“My dad always encourages me to play cricket,” He told Mid-Day Recent interview. “He has been very supportive of me since I was a kid. His dream is to watch me play for the Indian team. It’s really hard to live without him, but I have accepted the fact that he is no longer with me. This helps me keep going and focus. For my work.”

For a 19-year-old young man, to accept his father’s death and still focus on his cricket ambitions is a challenge that many people may succumb to. But Rajvardhan Hangargekar bit the hardest bullet in his life and overcame the difficult period, allowing India to enter the U-19 World Cup squad.

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Rajvardhan Hangargekar quickly climbed up the ladder

The rise is as rapid as Rajvardhan Hangargekar’s warm heart. After his impressive results in the U-19 Vinoo Mankad trophy and subsequent Challenger Championships, he won the choice of the Indian youth team.

In the Vinoo Mankad trophy from September to October, he won 9 wickets for Maharashtra and 216 hits in Maharashtra, and then in the Challenger Championship Won four wickets for the Indian C team. Rajvardhan won his first India U-19 trials with three consecutive victories from Bangladesh and two selected Indian teams. In that game, he continued his impressive run and scored three wickets.

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The pacemaker, which can also hit the ball, was then selected to participate in India’s U-19 Asian Cup in Dubai and headed to the Caribbean World Cup. As often happens in a country fascinated by batting genius, Rajvardan’s rapid rise did not attract people’s attention. But as long as junior selections and managers realize his talents and abilities, this little kid won’t mind.

Interestingly, Rajvardhan never wanted to be a pacemaker in the first place. This is an art that he accidentally turned to when his U-14 team in Osmanabad was struggling to find a suitable fast bowler. While this will not be an easy transition, he decided to turn to the pace and hasn’t looked back since.

At this moment, two very important people appeared in his life: coach Mohan Jadhav and coach Tejas Matapurkar, who also served as his mentor. Jadhav is responsible for overseeing Rajvardhan’s rapid development in Pune, while Matapurkar ensures that he trains hard at Veerangan Cricket Academy to build a fast bowler’s body.

“I have a good speed, but lack accuracy and change. Mr. Mohan helped me solve my problems. I used to bowl emotionally and only focused on bowling fast, but my coach changed my mindset. He helped me run up, which helped me bowl at a speed of 140 kilometers per hour. My goal is to bowl consistently at that speed.” The pacemaker said he was affectionately known as Marathwada Express on the Maharashtra circuit.

“He used to run like a sprinter, so we prepared for his approach.” Jadhav said in the interaction with Mid-Day. “He has a very good inside forward, York and bodyguards. In the past six months, his batting skills have also improved.”

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However, due to poor physical development, the direct effect of bowling too fast is injury, which also requires frustrating rehabilitation. But Rajvardhan Hangargekar never lost hope, and started to train his body under the watchful eyes of Matapurkar.

“We have to plan his fitness and training program and his bowling schedule. In the past two years, he has shot about 800 balls in the net at a decent rate.” Matarpurkar said Rajvardhan added: “It was painful at first, but today I am all because of the training of Lord Guanghui. He takes care of my physical fitness and mental strength.”