Young Barinder Sran living his dream

CHANDIGARH: After hitting a fearsome straight drive in the third over of the home team's run-chase, Australian opener Aaron Finch must have thought the ball would go beyond the boundary of the WACA ground in Perth. But the big bucket hands of the bowler Barinder Singh Sran came in the way.
The ease with which Sran caught the low return catch to his right, reminded one of the time he donned boxing gloves just six years back.The 23-year-old went on to pick up two more wickets on his India debut and returned with figures of 3 for 56 from 9.2 overs. The other two Sran victims on the day were Australia captain Steve Smith, who was deceived by a well-disguised slower one, and the dangerous David Warner, who was caught at mid-off by Virat Kohli early in the Australian innings.
The scalp of top players like Finch, Warner and Smith as a debutant makes for quite a reading, but also increases the expectations of fans. It remains to be seen whether he builds from here or fades away like many others. Former Punjab coach Bhupinder Singh Sr, who was himself a fast bowler in the early 90s and has worked closely with Sran, feels the youngster has a level head and won't be carried away with his debut performance.
"When he (Barinder) came into the Punjab Ranji team, he was a greenhorn. But he knew how to bowl fast! That is something one can't teach anyone. It is an in-born quality. His debut performance against the Aussies was good but I know he can bowl even better. He can constantly breach the 140 kph mark. The other thing about Barinder is that he is very level-headed. He doesn't gets too cocky when he is performing well. Instead, he looks to carry on his good form," Bhupinder said.
Though he is making waves on the cricketing field, it was the boxing ring which attracted Barinder initially. He went to the famous Bhiwani Boxing Club in Haryana, home to Olympic medallist Vijender Singh, in 2007 with dreams of becoming a boxer. Sran started training under Dronacharya awardee Jagdish Singh at the club.
In 2009, a newspaper advertisement changed his life. IPL team Kings XI Punjab was calling bowlers for selection trials in Mohali. Sran, who used to play tennis ball cricket in his village (Dabwali in Sirsa district), thought of giving it a try. He didn't make the cut but the trials changed his life. He found himself in the Kings Cup (a tournament organized for budding cricketers by KXIP) as one of the best 35-40 uncapped cricketers in Punjab.
Later, Sran went on to win a contest called Gatorade Speedster. He won the U-19 leg and that took him to the International Cricket Council's (ICC) academy in Dubai.