Miscellaneous
Saurav’s second coming
On a sunny day at the Tribhuvan University Cricket Stadium, cricketer Saurav Khanal is surrounded by a herd of fans. Well-built and muscular, Khanal, who represented the Western Development Region team in the recently-concluded Prime Minister Cup, is getting used to all the attention by now.Adarsha Dhakal
On a sunny day at the Tribhuvan University Cricket Stadium, cricketer Saurav Khanal is surrounded by a herd of fans. Well-built and muscular, Khanal, who represented the Western Development Region team in the recently-concluded Prime Minister Cup, is getting used to all the attention by now. He, after all, was judged the Best Batsman of the tournament—a round-robin and knockout 50-over competition that fielded a clutch of both national and up-and-coming cricketers.
Yet it wasn’t just Khanal’s technique and consistency that turned heads at TU. It was also his brute power. In the five games he played, he smashed a total of 27 towering sixes—10 more than what Nepal AFP Club, the second-highest six-hitting side, hit as a team throughout the tournament.
Naturally, social media went into overdrive. “How is he generating so much power?” some asked, “What has he been eating.”
“Maybe, it is because he recently got married,” some suggested.
“He’s now sporting a moustache and a beard. Maybe the kid’s hit puberty,” others quipped.
This, however, isn’t the first time Khanal has come into the limelight. As a junior cricketer, he was part of the Nepal U-19’s underwhelming run at the 2012 World Cup held in Australia, albeit as a pace bowler.
In 2011, Khanal had been picked up for the Nepali junior side after he impressed with the amount of pace that he generated and the variations he bowled with. “I didn’t have many wickets (in the selection tournament) to my name but the pace I was bowling with caught the attention of the selectors,” he remembers. In the tournament itself, Khanal played just two games—both losses against Sri Lanka and Ireland—but the two appearances were enough to suggest that his true prowess was with the bat and not just the ball.
“In our game against Ireland, we were chasing a total of 185, but the top order collapsed quickly. As the game wound down, I was batting with Avinash (Karn)—a fast bowler—and we offered the Irish some touch resistance, falling just short in our chase,” Khanal recalls, “After the game, Coach Dassanayake pulled me aside and told me that I could play as a genuine batsman. I was told I had a good defence and shot playing abilities, and that I would make half-a-decent all-rounder. It was the first time that I gave batting any serious thought. Before that I was just focused on my bowing.”
That transition, however, would be cut short. Shortly after the tournament, Khanal suffered from a spinal disc problem that would keep him off the pitch for the next three years. Following a long rehabilitation, he returned to the fray for the 2015 ICC U-19 World Cup Global Qualifier and had aspirations to play in the 2016 U-19 World Cup in Bangladesh—a tournament in which Nepal would make it all the way to the quarterfinals, pulling off major scalps against New Zealand and Ireland before falling just short against the hosts Bangladesh. But as fate would have it, Khanal was ruled out with a knee injury just days before the tournament kicked off.
“I don’t even want to remember those three years. I had to overcome a lot of physical and mental hurdles in order to be where I am today,” he says, “But, I paid my price. Because of those injuries, I am not able to generate the same pace that I once did. I had no option but to begin to focus on my batting instead.”
When his opportunity finally arrived—in the form of the 2017 Prime Minister Cup, Nepal’s first domestic 50-over tournament in three years—Saurav Khanal went at it all guns blazing.
The tournament, held earlier this month, had started on a drab note with the initial matches failing to capture much attention. Then, in the game against the Armed Police Force (AFP) club, with the Western Development Region reeling at 33-6 while chasing a revised target of 148 from 20 overs, Khanal set tongues wagging by smashing a breathless 90 not out in mere 49 balls. In the course of the blistering innings, he would clobber 11 monstrous sixes—five of them in a single over against medium pacer Avinash Bohora.
His efforts, that included a 98-run seventh wicket partnership with Bidhan Shrestha, would ultimately fall just short of victory, but it would go on to set the pace for the rest of the tournament.
In the game against the Central Development Region team, Khanal would smash another 78 not out in 58 balls, in an innings where he again had just lower order batsmen for company at the crease. He hit six more towering sixes during his blitzkrieg innings. That victory would set up the Westerners for a showdown against the Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) in the semi-finals—a formidable team that included Sagar Pun, fast bowling duo Sompal Kami and Jitendra Mukhiya, hard-hitting Binod Bhandari and Anil Mandal, one of the most consistent performers in domestic cricket.
By this stage in the tournament, Khanal had already emerged as a fan favourite. He certainly had the power and the willingness to go after bowlers; oftentimes it seemed that even his miss-hits sailed over the boundary rope.
Take the shot he played against Shahab Alam of a star-studded TAC during the semi-finals for instance. Saurav went to smash the spinner’s rising delivery over the bowler’s head but miscued the shot. The TAC camp thought they had their man, and with the minnows reeling at 66-7, the game appeared done and dusted. But to the Armymen’s surprise, the ball that had initially taken a 90 degree elevation cleared the boundary convincingly.
In that semi-final, Khanal made an uncharacteristically composed 82 runs from 86 balls, displaying that he had plenty of panache to go with his power. During the innings, he was involved in a 145-run eight wicket stand with all-rounder Krishna Karki (who made a valiant 75), lifting the team to 235-9 in 50 overs. That target would ultimately not be enough to keep the experienced TAC at bay, but Khanal’s performances had cricket fans quickly drawing parallels to Boom Boom Afridi.
For a cricketer who initially began his playing career as an out-and-out fast bowler, Khanal’s second coming as an explosive batsman has been a thrilling revelation. In April this year, he had also played a pivotal role as an all-rounder as a member of Team Chauraha—led by National Team skipper Paras Khadka—that bagged the country’s first auction-based Twenty20 tournament, the Dhangadi Premier League (DPL).
But despite the attention he has recently received, Khanal isn’t getting carried away just yet. “I don’t have the class that the country’s top batsmen like Gyanendra Malla, Paras Khadka or Sharad Vesawkar possess,” he says, matter-of-factly, “ I enjoy the game whenever I go to bat. I am still trying to find my rhythm with the ball following the injury. But with the bat, I’m ready for anything.”
Having played with and watched Khanal in recent tournaments, Paras Khadka too is hopeful that Khanal, if given the time and room to grow, could become a major asset as an all-rounder. “Saurav is a good prospect and his biggest enemy has been his fitness,” Khadka said, in a conversation with the Post, “He has always been a good all-rounder and now he has finally proved himself at national levels. Even in the DPL, he was effective with both the bat and ball. We know him as a hard working lad and he is undoubtedly an exciting prospect for the country’s cricketing setup.”
Saurav Khanal might yet just be two full domestic tournaments into his second coming, but if the herd of fans clamouring for his signature at the close of the PM Cup was anything to go by, his stock in Nepali cricket will only soar in the coming years. He might have seen some highs and many lows already, but at just 20 years old, you can’t help but feel his journey has just begun.