He goes on to speak about Sharma’s 50 — the innings that saw the transition of the Borivali boy to the Durban hero. “He showed great temperament. And it is extremely elating as a selector when a junior comes off the bench to play a match-winning innings.”

Since he burst into the international scene by scoring 201 runs in five games during the Junior World Cup in 2006, Sharma is known in the circuit as a batsman with a simple technique, graceful style and, as Vengsarkar adds, “lots of time to play his strokes.”

But Sharma’s friends keep it simple as they can’t stop speaking about last night’s ‘kadak’ knock. They speak fondly about Indian cricket’s newest star, who hasn’t changed a bit and still constantly keeps in touch with them. No doubt, Sharma groaned about his cell phone bill to a journalist recently and asked him to keep in touch through mail.

Just before leaving for England as the team gathered at Mumbai’s Taj, Sharma invited his friends to his room. “Tapori log ko five-star dekhna tha,” he says when asked about his crowded room.

And later at night when Sharma heard on television about a building collapse in Borivali, he drove 40 km to check about his suburban friends.

While experts say that it is too early to call him the next great Mumbai batsman, not since two Shardashram School boys entered record books has a junior cricketer been followed so closely. Vengsarkar says: “The challenge for him now is to go to next level.”

... contd.