Back in 2000, when Mohammad Kaif-led India received the U-19 World Cup, Sukhwinder Bawa was the toast of each cricket journalist. His ward Yuvraj Singh was Player of the Tournament, and everybody wished a chunk of the coach who had skilled the to-be famous person.
Cut to the current, twenty years later, his cellphone is once more buzzing, and the inboxes are full, however Bawa just isn’t overwhelmed. He says, “I’m having deja vu. I’ve seen it earlier than.
“Back then, it was an adrenaline rush. Abhi aisa lag raha ki yaar ye sab dekh chuka hun (Now I feel like I have seen all these things before). Yes, I am a bit emotional because Raj is my son,” says Bawa with a heavy voice.
Sukhwinder Bawa’s son Raj Angad Bawa has not put a foot fallacious within the 2022 U-19 World Cup. He bagged a four-wicket haul towards South Africa within the first match and adopted it with 42 towards Ireland. With his 108-ball unbeaten 162 – together with 14 fours and eight sixes – towards Uganda, he surpassed Shikhar Dhawan’s 155 towards Scotland in 2004 as the best rating by an Indian at an U-19 World Cup.
It looks like he saved his finest for the ultimate towards England. He was the destroyer-in-chief for India with fiery figures of 5 for 31 as he ran via England’s center order; it was the most effective bowling efficiency ever in an U-19 World CUp remaining.
That’s #RajBawa in ICC U19 #WorldCup2022 finals #INDvENG #IndiaU19 pic.twitter.com/PQidww0wia
— Aakash Srivastava (@Cursedbuoy) February 5, 2022
What impressed Bawa probably the most was the dismissal of George Bell. A well-directed bouncer first ball, proper up close to the grille; Bell was shocked by the snorter, and Dinesh Bana did the remaining behind the wicket.
“He can’t do anything wrong today, can he,” says Sukhwinder Bawa. “That dismissal will make any fast bowler proud. I am sure Bell was not expecting a bouncer the first ball he was facing. It was well executed.”
The story of all-rounder Raj Angad Bawa is fascinating as his father had banned him from bowling fast for at the very least 5 years.
Growing up, Raj Angad Bawa was a middle-order batter who used to bowl off-spin. Sukhwinder was extra centered on his son’s batting.
“Fast bowling to uske DNA mey hai (Fast bowling is in his DNA). He picked up a five-wicket haul in an U-12 match in Gurgaon. That was the moment I told him you should focus on your batting more,” Sukhwinder tells The Indian Express.
The motive behind Sukhwinder’s insistence was that he by no means wished his son to be a tailender. “I wanted him to become a proper batter, not some fast bowler who can’t even face 10 balls. I worked on his batting and never allowed him to bowl pace for almost five years.”
The love for quick bowling reignited when Raj was chosen for the Punjab U-16 crew for the Vijay Merchant Trophy. There was a strict instruction from Sukhwinder that he should give attention to his batting, however the teenager would bowl on the nets, and request everybody to maintain it a secret.
“I knew it the first day he started bowling again. Baap hun uska (I am his father). I didn’t say a word because he was scoring runs,” says Sukhwinder.
Sukhwinder Bawa, a pupil of the late coach DP Azad, is understood for his self-discipline amongst his trainees. Arslan Khan, considered one of Sukhwinder’s trainees, recounts the time he and Raj shared in Gurgaon.
“Bawa sir never tolerates indiscipline, be it me or Raj. He hates when someone turns up late for training. He will always tell us if you can’t respect the game, stop playing it. At home, he was a father for all of us, would cook food, take care of our diets, help us with our muscle cramps, but on the ground, he is strict,” says Arslan.
“I used to stay with Bawa sir in Gurgaon. Raj and I used to share the same room; there used to be the same schedule for both of us. Those five years in Gurgaon, training seven days a week at Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Gurgaon, shaped our career,” says the 22-year previous southpaw who performs for Chandigarh.
When Raj performed that breathtaking knock towards Uganda, Arslan was not shocked. “He always used to score big runs. We have an age difference of three years, so we were in different age groups. But I have seen him scoring heaps of runs. He would return from every match, and his favourite phrase was ‘bhaiya aaj phod ke aaya hun (I have killed it today.) I was not surprised, when he scored that century against Uganda, you will see more big scores from him in the future,” says Khan, who has scored a double century on his Ranji Trophy debut towards Arunachal Pradesh in December 2019.
Sukhwinder performed hockey for the Haryana junior crew and was even chosen for the India U-19 camp in 1988. His dream of enjoying cricket, nonetheless, ended as a result of a slipped disc harm, and on the age of twenty-two, he turned a coach.
“When I completed my diploma from SAI Centre Gandhinagar, I was very young. I always dreamt of producing a genuine all-rounder who can bowl at a deceptive pace and is a solid batter. Maybe because growing up, I have seen the likes of Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Ian Botham and Richard Hadlee. What a rivalry it used to be among them!” says Sukhwinder Bawa.
5⃣-wicket haul within the #U19CWC Final! 👌 👌
What a unbelievable efficiency this has been from Raj Bawa! 🙌 🙌 #BoysInBlue #INDvENG
England U19 all out for 189.
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/p6jf1AXpsy pic.twitter.com/oBNj8j2d1W
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 5, 2022
His dream to develop a correct all-rounder got here to be fulfilled in his son’s progress.
“Raj was with me 24×7. He used to accompany me everywhere. We’ve always talked cricket, and I used to tell him stories about Kapil paaji. I think he sensed at a very young age what I was looking for,” says Sukhwinder Bawa.
“When I saw his bowling, I knew he was a natural pacer. So I concentrated all my efforts on his batting. I am glad it has worked. He is a complete all-rounder, not even a 60-40.”
When requested why he by no means allowed him to bowl fast for nearly 5 years, Sukhwinder Bawa replies, “You can work on someone’s technique till they are 16; after that, it is all mental. I have been able to groom him technically. But I’ve worked very little on his bowling. The only thing I have worked upon is his landing knee because it used to bend a lot, and it was injury-prone. That’s a little tweak I did with his bowling action.”
Raj bowls together with his proper arm however is a left-hand batter. He switched his batting stance after watching Yuvraj Singh.
“I used to watch Yuvraj practise at my father’s coaching centre. When I first picked up the bat maybe I was trying to imitate him, and it stuck with me,” says Raj, who idolises Yuvraj, and dons the identical jersey quantity 12.
Sport runs within the household. Raj’s grandfather, Tarlochan Singh Bawa, was a member of the Indian hockey crew that received the 1948 London Olympics gold. Tarlochan scored two targets within the Olympics, one within the 4-0 win over Great Britain within the remaining, incomes unbiased India its first gold medal.
Sukhwinder has just one piece of recommendation for his son, which is to “stay humble and keep working hard.” The gifted teen needs to play all three codecs for India.
“Mujhe India khelna hai, aur saare formats khelna hai (I want to play for India, and in all three formats). But my real struggle will start once i return from the U-19 World Cup. I will have to establish myself in first-class cricket. As my father always says, believe in the process, and keep working hard,” Bawa had advised this paper on the eve of India’s summit conflict.
