Shashank Singh & Ashutosh Sharma — Tale of two gutsy cricketers from cricketing backwaters

Shashank Singh hails from Bhilai, famously known for the steel plant. Ashutosh Sharma is from Ratlam, which is best known for the dialogue “Ratlam ki galiyaan,” in the Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor – starrer Jab We Met. Neither Bhilai nor Ratlam is famous for being a cricketing hub.

On Thursday night, the two little-known uncapped players led Punjab Kings to a three-wicket win over Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Singh clubbed four sixes and six boundaries in his unbeaten 61 off 29 balls, while Ashutosh scored a quickfire 17-ball 31.

Mohammed Kaif, who has seen Shashank from close quarters during his two-year stint with Chattisgarh sums up the “fearless” approach of the two batters.

What’s Ashutosh Sharma’s background story of getting picked for @PunjabKingsIPL 🤔

Hear from the impact player himself in conversation with Player of the Match Shashank Singh 😎 – By @Moulinparikh & @mihirlee_58

WATCH 🎥🔽 #TATAIPL | #GTvPBKShttps://t.co/rz1T1L5uYd

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 5, 2024

“Players like Shashank wait for the opportunity and they know that if they fail no one is going to talk about them. No one will be bothering why they failed. Every chance is the last chance for them. Such players come from small cities and have big hunger,” Kaif tells The Indian Express.

“I met him this season during the RCB game and he got out on 0 batting down the order. He said bhai aage karoonga, pakka karoonga (I will do better in the future) and he has been not out since then. It’s not an easy position to bat, especially for uncapped players batting at number 7. Mostly each team has a foreigner who plays at that position someone like Andre Russell. The lower-order batsman will have to score against quality attacks and face bowlers like Bumrah in the end. So to perform there is a big thing,” adds Kaif.

On the same lines, Amey Khurasia, who scouted Sharma, when he was 12, says the the small cameo means a lot for Ashutosh and players like him, who have fought the system to reach this level.

2️⃣ Points ✅

Young guns Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma win it for @PunjabKingsIPL 🙌

They get over the line as they beat #GT by 3 wickets 👍

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/0Sy2civoOa #TATAIPL | #GTvPBKS pic.twitter.com/m7b5f8jLbz

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 4, 2024

“One should offer a prayer for such players. Ashutosh would have been lost if not for the Punjab Kings. He has lost 3-4 years of his cricket because of the dirty politics,” says Khurasia.

“We always hear stories that one should prioritise first-class cricket. But then there are many like Ashutosh, who disappear because of the system. Imagine, if not for Punjab Kings and the IPL, would we have heard the name of Ashutosh? He would have played for Railways all his life.

“When he went into bat, it was the first time he was batting in an international arena, in that big stadium, where the team is under immense pressure. He was just waiting for one chance and he got it and almost took his team home. How many first-class cricketers can do that in the IPL, very few,” he says.

Shashank, a mistaken identity

Shashank was 13 when his father was posted in Jabalpur when he started making inroads in the U-15 and U-17 cricket. In his U-19 to U-25 and early List-A T20 years, Shashank was part of the Mumbai setup alongwith the likes of Abhishek Nayar, Shivam Dube, Suryakumar Yadav and Shubham Ranjane. A fierce competition in the ranks for the starting XI afforded him little game time. It was when his fellow teammate Abhishek Nayar moved to Pondicherry that he convinced Shashank to move with him. During his one-year cooling-off period though, Shashank was approached by Chattisgarh Cricket to join them.

His IPL story has been no different. Having been signed by the Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals in his first two years in the league, Shashank didn’t get to play in a single game. It was at Sunrisers Hyderabad where he first caught the eyes in the 2022 season where he made 10 appearances, one of which saw him maul three sixes in a row to New Zealand speedster Lockie Ferguson. But even that wasn’t enough as Shashank was let go by the 2016 winners. His move to Punjab wasn’t a smooth transition either with the drama during the 2024 auction leaving many under the impression that Punjab Kings didn’t want him, having mistaken him for another.

Shashank Singh wins it for @punjabkingsipl 👌

His inspirefeul innings takes them over the line 🙌

Watch the match LIVE on @StarSportsIndia and @JioCinema 💻📱#TATAIPL | #GTvPBKS pic.twitter.com/A9QHyeWhnG

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 4, 2024

“What he brings to the table is that he has played junior cricket from Mumbai. His parents being from Chattisgarh, he’s got a right to play here, which he used. He made his return here in 2019 and has been playing for us since,” says Hitesh Goswami, Chattisgarh coach, who is also Punjab Kings scout.

“There are some players who feed off the trust you show in them and Shashank is one of them. I picked it very early in him, he was the one who will win you the games. ‘You are my number 1 player.’ If you show the trust in him, he’ll deliver. Punjab did the same with him. I’m also a talent scout for them. I was pushing for Shashank. I used to tell them, Sunil Joshi and Sanjay Bangar, ‘Trust me, I’m only a scout, but he’s a good player.’ I pushed Punjab Kings to pick him, whatever happens.

“But even after he was selected, it looked like there was no chance that he’d be in the starting team. But the franchise took my word for it. The first time it has happened that a player from Chattisgarh has played four out of four IPL games in a season.”

From June this year, Chattisgarh Premier League is coming up and Goswami says it won’t be as big as TNPL or KPL but it will create a big pool of cricketers for Chattisgarh.

“Look I can’t pretend that now we have CPL, we will be giving players to the IPL. No, we are not,” he says.

“What will happen is: 120 players, 6 teams, which means 80-90 players will play in the tournament. They will get a very good stage to move forward. They will be in the limelight, people will be watching them, and maybe someone will be as good to play for India. I don’t know yet. But it’s not like somebody does well so they’ll pick him up for IPL.”

For now, there are two players from Chattisgarh, who are playing in the IPL — Shashank and Ajay Mandal, who is part of Chennai Super Kings.

This duo! 🫶🏻#SaddaPunjab #PunjabKings #JazbaHaiPunjabi #TATAIPL2024 #GTvPBKS pic.twitter.com/EHRRkdbRlI

— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) April 5, 2024

“I’m originally from Saurashtra. I started my coaching journey from there. I was coach of the U-14s when Cheteshwar Pujara was captain, Ravindra Jadeja being vice-captain. Afterwards, in U-19, I was the coach and Jadeja was captain. Then I became Ranji Trophy coach and these players were playing for India. So when they started playing, after that only Suarashtra became this winning side of today. It made all of our players believe they could perform at a higher level,” Goswami says.

“So when Shashank is playing, Ajay Mandal is getting selected for CSK. Because there’s so much competition, they don’t get many chances. This is the first time a player from Chattisgarh has played four in a row. That success will help other boys so much. It raises the bar for everyone else as well.”

Ashutosh, the fighter

Amey Khurasia vividly remembers the first time he saw Ashutosh, a young kid who was struggling to tie his bootlaces at the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Academy (MPCA) in Indore.

“When you see him open the batting, you will forget many players. He was rare at 12. He has an attitude in his batting. He is a modest and honest boy but if you put him against a bowler, he will hit them out of the park, he doesn’t show respect to the bowlers. He will play his shots. At that age He didn’t fear facing bowlers double his age not every 12-year-old kid can do that,” recalls Khurasia.

Ashutosh, who dedicated his performance to his coach also opened up on how despite doing well in the age group and for the Madhya Pradesh senior team, he was sidelined by their current coach Chandrakant Pandit.

“In 2019, I scored 84 runs in my last game for Madhya Pradesh in T20. Next year, a professional coach joined the set-up who had his own liking and disliking. Mai unko pasand nahi aaya (He never liked me). I scored in selection matches, around 90 off just 40-45 balls and still wasn’t picked when the team was announced,” Ashutosh told the reporters on Friday.

“I played U-23 also and scored two hundreds vs Delhi and Tamil Nadu respectively in four matches for the age-group team. I scored three half-centuries in six games I played in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy too. The professional coach didn’t consider me at all in the next year.

“During COVID-19, when 20 players used to travel and I used to stay in the team hotel. I stayed in the hotel for 1-2 months and was in depression. I was not able to see the ground, was not getting match time. I kept thinking what had been done. No one told me about my mistake,” says Ashutosh.

Khurasia, too, lambasts MPCA for treating one of their own badly.

“Just because some coach is successful, it doesn’t give him the right to sabotage someone’s career. If you are successful, you help others to grow, not play with their careers,” says Khurasia.

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