Ignored by Delhi, young Shivam Sharma impresses with Kings XI Punjab

NEW DELHI: When Shivam Sharma turned a couple of his off-spinners past Yuvraj Singh's bat last week, people sat up and took note. Here was another hitherto unknown player who was catching fans' attention, thanks to the IPL.
Shivam has more reasons to thank the IPL for keeping his hopes of playing topflight cricket afloat. The Delhi lad, 20, hasn't had the smoothest journey through the ranks despite consistent performances.
Having started his career as a top-order batsman, Shivam had to change trades and become an off-spinner after being rejected by the Delhi U-19 selectors two years ago.
Despite a string of good performances leading the state and zonal U-19 team last year, he lost a year as the Delhi & District Cricket Association, for reasons best known to them, decided not to graduate him to the under-25 team. A faction in DDCA still insists that he is the best young talent around in the Capital.
In fact, he was so impressive with both bat and ball that under-19 selector Chadrakant Pandit wanted to take him to the 2014 World Cup. But could not meet the age criterion for the tournament. Since then, Shivam was left on his own to hone his cricketing skills and develop his repertoire.
"I closely followed R Ashwin and I developed the carom ball while practising at my academy. I had no other option but to keep myself motivated," Shivam told TOI, who now prefers to be called an off-spinner first.
"He didn't find a spot through his batting in the under-19 team, but one of the selectors saw him giving the off-breaks a real good rip and he suggested him to concentrate on his bowling," his childhood coach Naresh Jain said.
"Other than Pandit, Sanjay Bangar had seen him at the NCA and zonal matches. He was also very impressed and he kept his name in mind before the auctions as well. Even Virender Sehwag had got the entire Ranji team to applaud him after a trial match," he added.
Shivam is revelling in the King XI set-up. But while he tries to excel in the T20 format, he is very mindful of what Kings XI teammate Murali Kartik told him: "Bowling in T20 can be learnt easily. The real art is to bowl in Test cricket."