9 lesser known facts about the India Under-19 captain Priyam Garg

Uttar Pradesh’s Priyam Garg will be leading the Indian team at the 2020 ICC Under-19s World Cup to be hosted by South Africa. The 16-team tournament will be played between 17 January and 9 February. India, the 4-time champions of the tournament are also the defending champions. Hence, a lot of expectations will be there from Priyam and his co. The 19-year-old has gained enough experience at senior level while playing in Duleep Trophy and Deodhar Trophy in the current season.

Here we look at the nine lesser-known facts of Priyam Garg, the captain of the Indian team for the 2020 U19 CWC.

1. Birth:

Priyam Garg was born on 30 November 2000 in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut. He hails from a village called Quila Parikshitgarh on the outskirts of Meerut. He is a right-handed batsman and represents his home state in the Indian domestic circuit. In the past, he had featured for Uttar Pradesh at Under-14s, Under-16s and Under-19s.

2. A hardworking father:

Priyam’s father Naresh Garg wasn’t rich enough to afford cricket kits and money for coaching. He borrowed money and got Priyam joined into a good academy in Meerut. Priyam is one of the five children in the family (2 sons and 3 daughters). Hence, to meet all these necessities, Naresh Garg had to sell milk door-to-door. He even drove school buses and also loading goods to ensure Priyam was provided with the best to reach the top level.

3. On the path of achieving mother’s dream:

Priyam’s mother wanted to see her son playing cricket in Indian colours. Unfortunately, she passed away in 2011. The 19-year-old is now set to lead the country in the 2020 ICC Under-19 World Cup. [Source: PTI]

4. The man of big hundreds:

Priyam Garg is well known for his big knocks at the age level cricket. During the 2014/15 Vijay Merchant Trophy, he scored 202 and 200 respectively against Madhya Pradesh U16s and Chhattisgarh U16s. In the 2015/16 Cooch Behar Trophy, Priyam scored an unbeaten 223 against Haryana U19s. In the 2017/18 season of the same competition, the youngster scored 206 in the match against Delhi Under-19s.

5. A century on Ranji Trophy debut:

Following his efforts in U16 and U19 tournament, Priyam Garg was fast-tracked into the Uttar Pradesh Ranji Trophy team even before he turned 18. He made his debut at the age of 17 years and 336 days against Goa. He scored an unbeaten 117 from 181 balls with nine fours and shared a 250-run 4th wicket stand with skipper Akashdeep Nath. Thus, Priyam became only the 2nd youngest player to score a hundred on Ranji debut for Uttar Pradesh.

JP Yadav was 17 years and 139 days old when he accomplished this feat when he was 17 years and 139 days old. Overall, the U19 skipper is the 4th youngest Ranji Trophy centurion for UP as the top two in this list are Suresh Raina (17y 12d in 2003/04) and Mohammad Kaif (17y 119d in 1997/98).

6. First-class double century at 18:

It didn’t take long for Priyam to score a double century in Ranji Trophy as he got one in only his 7th match. The youngster walked out to bat against Tripura after his team were left at 21/3 in the first session. He then shared partnerships of 207 with Akashdeep Nath (106) and 247 with Rinku Singh (149) for the 4th and 5th wickets respectively as Uttar Pradesh declared their innings of 552/7.

Priyam Garg was dismissed after facing 371 deliveries for his 206 that included 23 fours and a six. He was only 18 years and 22 days old at the start of the match which makes him the 3rd youngest Indian to score a first-class double century. Reetinder Singh Sodhi was 17 years and 15 days old when he scored his maiden double ton in 1997/98 Ranji season while Ambati Rayudu was 17 years and 55 days old in 2002/03.

7. A record Ranji season:

Alongside the double century and debut hundred, Priyam also scored four fifties across the 15 innings he batted during the 2018/19 tournament. He finished with 814 runs at an average of 67.83 and was one of the 13 players to score over 800 runs in that edition of Ranji Trophy. In fact, Priyam was only the 2nd player in the Ranji Trophy history to aggregate 800 runs in an edition. Rinku Singh became the first to do so in the 2018/19 season only. The left-hander ended up with 953 at a whopping average of 105.88.

8. Success as Indian captain at Under-19 level:

Priyam Garg has led the Indian team in 8 official Youth ODI matches thus far out of which the team won six. The right-hander aggregated 321 runs in seven innings he played across those 8 Youth ODIs. He averages 53.5 with an unbeaten ton and two fifties. Under his captaincy, India won the Tri-Nation U19 tournament held in England involving Bangladesh as the 3rd team. Priyam’s 73-run knock in the final was the top score for India during the 262-run chase.

9. From missing the 2018 team to captaining the team in 2020:

Priyam Garg had a chance to be part of the 2018 Under-19s World Cup held in New Zealand itself which was won by India. However, a dip in his scores around 2017-2018 period didn’t give him a chance to be part of the U19 side when he was 17 years and 2 months old.