Abhinav Manohar, who gave a glimpse of his batting abilities in his IPL debut for Gujarat Titans, is brother to German women's team cricketer and was never into the game.
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Abhinav Mahohar did not get much time in the middle on his IPL debut for Gujarat Titans (GT) against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the IPL 2022 contest on Monday but gave a fair account of his batting abilities. He is not afraid to take bowlers head-on and his unbeaten cameo off 15 runs off seven deliveries laced with three boundaries was a testament to that.
But that was not the case when he made his foray into cricket as a six-year-old. In fact, he was nothing special, and at the face of it was scared to take on pace bowlers. However, he went step by step, to convert his fear into confidence under the watchful eyes of his childhood coach Irfan Sait and his effort is now paying the greatest dividends.
“He was never into cricket. He was scared of facing the bowlers when he first came to my academy. His father (Manohar Sadarangani) and I are very good friends. They used to have a footwear shop, and I was running a clothing shop on Commercial Street in Bengaluru. His father asked me once to enrol him in my academy. I was a bit reluctant because he was never interested in cricket. I said I will give it a shot,” his coach told the Indian Express.
“It became a routine for him. After school, his father would drop him off, and then pick him up in the evening. There was nothing special back then,” says the 60-year-old coach.
Manohar, moreover, was not even passionate for the game but it all changed in 2006 when a ball hit his forehead and he came back with a stronger character in the next match to score a century.
“It became a routine for him. After school, his father would drop him off, and then pick him up in the evening. There was nothing special back then,” says the 60-year-old coach.
“Our academy played a practice match against the Hyderabad state U-14 team. A ball hit him (Manohar) in the forehead (the scar is still there), he was bleeding. We took him to the hospital; he got a couple of stitches. Deep down in my heart, I was sure he was never coming back. The next day, he was there, and scored a brilliant century. If you ask me, that was the turning point in his cricketing career,” says Irfan.
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Cricket, meanwhile, runs in his family. His first cousin Sharanya Sadarangani started to play at the academy of his childhood coach before he took baby steps into the game.
Sharanya, later, went to England after playing age-group cricket for her state team Karnataka and is currently a part of the German women’s team squad.
Manohar, a part of the Karnataka Syed Mushtaq Ali team, which lost in the final to Tamil Nadu had scored 162 runs in the tournament at a phenomenal strike rate of 150 which was followed by plenty of IPL franchises calling him for selection trials.
And with a chance, up his sleeve now, Manohar will be keen to catch the attention of the national team selectors by performing to his best of the ability in IPL 2022.
