All he wanted to do as a boy was play cricket: Mayank Markande's mother

The eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) started on an exciting note with a lot of young talents plying their trade, but one player who stood out amongst them all is Mayank Markande who not only helped his team get crucial wickets but is also the leading wicket-taker in the opening week. Mayank was bought by Mumbai Indians for his base price and the leg-spinner was immediately added to the XI.

In two games, he has dismissed Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni, Deepak Chahar, Wriddhiman Saha, Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey and Shakib Al Hasan for combined returns of 8-0-46-7. These are the kind of figures bowlers would give their right arm for. Only 20, Markande’s performances and poise belie his age.

His mother, Santosh Sharma was overwhelmed and went onto to praise her son and said, “All he wanted to do as a boy was play cricket. Even now, he only plays cricket in his free time,” she gushes. Watching her son on the telly makes her heart swell with pride. “I am very, very happy, My son has finally got a big platform to prove himself.”

His father said, “He was obsessed with the game. He would somehow get me to play with him either in the house or on the terrace. Sometimes I would bowl to him and sometimes he would bowl to me. Eventually, I decided to send him to an academy,” he recalls.

Coach’s take

After his early days at home, Mayank started to train under Mahesh Inder Singh Sodhi where he worked regressively with the full fortitude and seeing his sincereness coach said, “He used to bowl the back-of-the-hand slower one with ease. So, I thought of making him a right-arm leg-break bowler. After all, the googly came to him naturally.”

“I didn’t have to teach him how to bowl it. And look at him now. He just dismissed MS Dhoni a few days ago. The whole world is scared to bowl to Dhoni. I was very happy when Mayank dismissed him. And he told me he had planned the dismissal. He bowled the googly on purpose.”

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