RAJKOT: Guard, check. Fielders, check. Stance, check. Bowler's arm, check. The bat comes down straight. It either connects with the ball, or lets it go. Could he have done it better?
ALSO READ: Advantage England after taking 163-run lead over IndiaHaseeb Hameed likes to mirror each attempt he makes at playing a delivery. If he's gone forward on the front foot to play an off-spinner and grounded the ball, he'll go forward on the front foot once again after the end of that delivery to simulate that stroke.
ALSO READ: Five talking points from day fourIt's a habit. In that, he reveals himself to be a kind of perfectionist. One that can develop into a classic Test match batsman.
Back in England, they weren't all yelling in the air when they labelled him the 'Young
Geoffrey Boycott
', or 'Baby Boycs' given his age and demeanour. He isn't quite Boycott, though. The 19-year-old is in a space of his own.
In the era of booming Twenty20 cricket, he decided to put his head down and bat till the cows came home. Not that he cannot hit the six. The one from Jadeja that he sent over long-off with a strike as clean as possible was worth an IPL franchise's million-dollar cheque.
"He's very organized with his batting. A very hard worker as well. Calm. Level-headed,"
Adil Rashid said. For a boy as young as Hameed, he's been hearing a lot of this already in the last two years. They've compared him to Michael Atherton, his Lancashire senior who gave him his Test cap. To
Jonathan Trott, when his batting at Old Trafford last year in only his third Championship match had spectators drooling. To Boycs because England have always wanted another one like him.
Hameed is building huge expectations. Born in UK to Gujarati immigrants who hailed from the village Umraj near Surat, he got acquainted with cricket thanks to his father Ismail - a cricketer himself, a Boycott fan at heart who has Ian Chappell always at the back of his mind.
Five years ago, Ismail - who saw his then 14-year-old back then doing the right things with the bat - decided to send his boy to Mumbai. He called good friend Iqbal Shaikh, a former assistant commissioner of police in Mumbai.
"I told him to send Haseeb to Mumbai. Unfortunately, we couldn't get him to play in the police shield (a local tournament) because rules have changed. He played with the local clubs. That is when I also introduced him to Vidya Paradkar, who's a good coach," says Shaikh.
Paradkar, for the record, is among the individuals who had a hand in shaping Zaheer Khan's career, among others. Be it Cook or Root, they've all debuted in India and prospered. Hameed got the opportunity to do the same. It's destiny that he did it in Gujarat, Ismail's home.
Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!