Siddharth Kaul
HE is being touted as the most fit 17-year-old Indian cricketer ever. Punjab Ranji coach Gurcharan Singh insists that he should be quoted verbatim when he says: "This boy will certainly play for the Indian senior." Siddharth finished with five wickets in his debut Ranji game against Orissa but what impressed the coach the most was his work ethics. "How many people you know run for two hours after a hard day's toil on field?" is Gursharan's needless query since he is aware that the answer is a 'No'.
But a bit of background check makes one understand that Siddharth was fated to be an athlete with amazing stamina. His father Dr Tej Kaul is a noted coach and physiotherapist with the Sports Authority of India while his mother Sandhya Kaul is national gymnastics champion. With Dr Kaul connected to the Gwalior pace academy when Siddharth learnt to walk, the youngster was hooked to hurling the ball early in his life. "Since my wife was away for competition at times, the aaya used to bring Siddharth to the nets. So he was always running around with other boys," says the father.
That's a habit that has stuck with Siddharth till date. His off-season schedule includes juggling between 15 kms running, an hour of swimming, long cycling trip and, of course, bowling at nets in the evening every day. "I have drawn a schedule for him that he follows strictly," says Dr Kaul. Siddharth isn't all brawn but brain too. Back to Gurcharan. "I was quite impressed by the way he got former Test opener SS Das out in his debut Ranji game. Repeated out swinger and a killer in cutter. Das left the ball that took his stumps," he recalls.

Napoleon Einstein
HIS scientist grandfather has a thing for unusual but well-known names. His father is Napoleon and he is...well, Einstein. It's not known if Napoleon had ANY political ambition, but physics does have a role to play in young Einstein's cricketing career. The offie's perfect loop has a lot of science to it. Former left-armer Maninder Singh was impressed by the parabola the ball drew after leaving Einstein's hand during the national camp for spinners in 2005. “He has a fantastic loop and is not afraid to toss the ball up,” says Maninder. “He has the right ingredients,” he adds.

Abhinav Mukund
HE was picked for the Tamil Nadu Ranji Trophy side this season and scored successive tons in the first two games. Abhinav has been the most-talked about junior on the highly competitive Chennai circuit for long, but this has been the season of graduation for the talented opener. TN under-19 coach Gokulkrishnan speaks about his wards: “He has a great technique and good shots. He isn't a slam bang kind of player but plays the ball on merit. He generally sticks to conventional cricketing shots.”

Sourav TIWARY
IT'S quite unusual for India’s ODI captain MS Dhoni to say "Baap re" in response to some stunning strokeplay. But that's exactly what happened last season at Eden Gardens when Jharkhand was pitted against Bengal in a T20 game. As a number of Tiwary ‘big ones’ disappeared into the stands and fielders were nursing blisters in their palms, Jharkhand was celebrating the spotting of Dhoni II.
Tiwary sports long hair like Dhoni and is immensely popular among the World Cup teammates who call him Bhim. Kajal Das, who also happens to be the East Zone junior selector, was Tiwary's first coach. “He is with me from the time he used to roam around in shorts,” says Das, who never imagined that one day he will be picking a boy from his own academy for the World Cup. The son of a junior India volleyball player, who works for Telco in Jamshedpur, Tiwary at 6’ 2” is the tallest player in the squad. Das says that he hasn't seen anybody who is so much in love with the game. “He would come home from a hectic tour but in the evening he would be batting in the nets,” says Kajal. He has got a first class hundred but missed the three-figure mark by two runs in a warm-up game in Malaysia few days back. But it wouldn't be out of place to mention that he finished the game with a six.
—SD