CHENNAI: Kumar Kushagra and Robin Minz share a lot of similarities. Both hail from Jharkhand and are wicketkeeper-batters known for their big-hitting abilities. As luck would have it, the duo turned millionaires only minutes apart with IPL franchises breaking the bank to hire their services for the 2024 season during the mini-auction on Tuesday.
Delhi Capitals signed 19-year-old Kushagra for a whopping Rs 7.2 crore with his base price being Rs 20 lakh. With Rs 20 lakh as his base price, Minz, 21, went to Gujarat Titans for Rs 3.6 crore. They might look similar on several counts but both treaded contrasting paths before causing an intense bidding war among various franchises in the mini-auction.
Being the son of retired army personnel, all was not that hunky-dory for left-handed batter Minz, a tribal cricketer, when he started playing cricket. "He was around 13 when he joined our club, Sonnet Cricket Club in Namkum, Ranchi," Ashif Haque Ansari, Minz's childhood coach, told this daily.
Ashif, along with SP Gautam and Chanchal Bhattacharya who mentored former India captain MS Dhoni, honed the skills of Minz as he progressed gradually. But cricket is an expensive game and pursuing it as a career is a double-edged sword. "With two sisters. it was not easy for him. There were times when we all contributed to make sure he did not quit the game. Since the beginning, his fitness level was something else. After retirement, his father is now working at the international airport in Ranchi," added the coach.
Minz has yet not made his senior Jharkhand debut but represented the state in age-group cricket. A devoted fan of Dhoni, Minz impressed all and sundry with his strokeplay and Mumbai Indians even took him to a camp in the United Kingdom. "He has all shots in his arsenal and can take any bowling attack apart on his day. I am quite sure he will justify the faith put on him by the Gujarat franchise," said the coach.
Kushagra, on the other hand, made his first-class debut last season and has played 13 matches so far. He had represented the state in 23 List-A and 11 T20 matches. Unlike Minz, Kushagra was blessed to have facilities at his doorstep when he ventured into the game. Shashi Kant, his father, is a government officer and made sure Kushagra got every support he needed to make it big. Such was his father's dedication that he even got a turf constructed on the vacant space in his government-allotted house in Jamshedpur.
"I met him (father) when he was the district treasury officer in Bokaro. When he was posted in Jamshedpur, he got a turf constructed in his backyard. He used to bowl at his son after returning home. He used to call senior players from the district for training at the turf so that Kushagra, who would be around 10 at that time, could also practice," PN Singh, joint secretary of the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA), told this daily. Singh was secretary of the Bokaro Cricket Association when Kushagra's father got transferred there.
Kushagra was the sixth-highest run-getter in the Deodhar Trophy earlier this year with 227 runs in five innings at a strike rate of 109.13 including a fifty for East Zone in the final against South Zone, which they eventually lost. He also smashed a 36-ball 67 as Jharkhand chased down the 356-run target posed by Maharashtra in the Vijay Hazare Trophy last month. The right-handed batter was also in the India 2020 U-19 World Cup squad. "(PN) Singh did a lot for Kushagra. Had he been not there, my son wouldn't have achieved his dream of playing cricket. Credit to him for lending a supporting hand," father Shashi Kant told this daily.
