Vishwas Puri
The Indian-origin bowler of Australia, Vishwa Ramkumar, has earned a lot of praise on account of his four wicket haul against India U-19 in the 1st youth test between the teams. He played a huge role in taking the Indian team from 133-0 to all down at a score of 296.
But the cricketing journey of Vishwa has been very quirky. Vishwa is fulfilling the dream of his father, who was cheering for Vishwa from the stands along with his family. The cricketing dream started from his father, who once had a dream of becoming a cricketer for his country but he had to choose his studies over cricket, which forced him to pursue his career as a chartered accountant. Vishwa’s father worked in many different countries, such as Singapore, the US, and New Zealand, but ended up settling in Australia in 2006, where Vishwa was born the same year.
At the age of 4, Vishwa started playing cricket at his home. Whereas he started practicing bowling at the age of six. In the beginning, Vishwa wanted to be a fast bowler, but his father advised him to focus on being a spin bowler as he did not have those Australian genes and body to be a fast bowler, which the native Australians had who could have a better edge over Vishwa. Therefore, he changed his bowling style to a leg spinner.
Vishwa started playing in tournaments at 9. At 9, he got a chance to play in the Mitchell Shield tournament in Melbourne. Later on, he earned his spot in the under-14 through his consistent performances with the ball. But due to the lesser amount of cricket played in winters in Australia, Vishwa’s father Ramkumar has been taking him to India for the last 2 years. He practiced with a Bengaluru-based club and was also the net bowler of the pre-season camp of the IPL team Chennai Super Kings in the last season.
The spin bowling environment of India, consisting of spin-friendly pitches, coaches having good knowledge of spin, really has a splendid exposure to Vishwa, which is helping him in the youth tests. However, it is too early to judge. He has the skills to be the next spin sensation of Australia in the upcoming years.
