I look up to Virat Kohli: Manjot Kalra, Man of the Match, U-19 World Cup Final

Manjot Kalra was a name known to only the most ardent of cricket fans and residents of Majlis Park in north Delhi before February 3. On that day, the Delhi boy scored a match-winning hundred in the final of the ICC U-19 World Cup to emerge not just as the Man of the Match, but also as a new household name in Indian cricket. The 19-year-old returned to Delhi a few days ago to screaming fans at the airport and a huge crowd of well-wishers outside his house."The first day I was home, there were close to 300 people who wanted to meet me and click selfies with me. It was great at first, but got tiring after a while," says Manjot. In fact, the fanfare got so much that Manjot’s family shifted him to another house close by. His brother Hitesh says, "He was getting exhausted, meeting with so many people. So I had to send him away to our uncle’s house to save him from the mayhem."
Manjot Kalra
Naturally, when we meet Manjot at the Pitampura Sports Complex where he practises, he is visibly tired and a little under the weather. But talk about cricket and his face immediately lights up. The Bal Bharti School, Rohini alumnus describes his World Cup final knock as the high point of his life. "This is something that I will always remember and something I will always be remembered for. It is very special," says Manjot. The youngster lives in Majlis Park in a joint family. His father works as a fruit wholesaler in the nearby Azadpur Mandi. The 19-year-old skipped college admissions to focus on cricket as he wanted to perform well in the Under-19 circuit, a decision he feels was the best he ever made.
Manjot posed for Delhi Times
Manjot says the U-19 World Cup was a transformative experience. He tells us, "It helped me learn a lot of new things and mature as a player." One of the highlights, he says, was training under cricket legend Rahul Dravid, the team’s head coach. A lot has been said and written about how strict Dravid is but Manjot says that is far from true. "Rahul sir is a very calm coach, and he hardly gets angry. He is firm but very patient, not the strict person he has been painted as. There was a rumour going around that he had confiscated our phones during the World Cup but no such thing happened," Manjot says.
The southpaw is now starting to prepare for the upcoming IPL, for which he has been signed by the Delhi Daredevils for `20 lakh, a princely sum for the teenager. "I didn’t expect a bid, to be honest. I was thinking if I perform well in the World Cup, maybe somebody would be interested in me, but since I haven’t even played first-class cricket, I was skeptical. It came as a pleasant surprise," says Manjot. But given that several of his Under-19 teammates earned bids of up to `4 crore, doesn’t he feel a bit left out in terms of the big monies? "Not really," says Manjot, adding, "Maybe if the auction had taken place after the final, I would have earned more. But it doesn’t matter to me. Right now, I just want to play. That’s all."
Like every young Delhi batsman, Manjot looks up to Indian skipper Virat Kohli. He says, "I don’t copy anybody’s style but if you talk about the mindset and the approach to the game, I really look up to Virat bhaiyya. The way he plays and likes to take the game to the end is something I try and emulate.” So does the emulation stretch to Virat’s (in)famous on-field aggression? Manjot laughs and says, “I’m a very calm person waise toh. Par kya karein, Delhi ki hawa mein hi aggression hai."