Run-machine Pawar hungry for more

While playing a game of cricket at two years of age in the backyard,Kaustubh Pawars father decided that he would model his son on his hero,Kapil Dev.

Written by Aditya Iyer

New Delhi | January 13, 2010 11:25 PM IST

4 min read

While playing a game of cricket at two years of age in the backyard,Kaustubh Pawars father decided that he would model his son on his hero,Kapil Dev. Seventeen years later,Pawar rolls his arm over methodically as a second change medium pacer almost as if to not let his father down but his hunger for big scores with the bat dominates his game,which is incidentally modeled on his own hero,Rahul Dravid.

With a copybook batting style and three 150 plus innings in back-to-back matches in the Cooch Behar Trophy the last of which was scored against Delhi in the semi-finals over Monday and Tuesday and a total tally of 648 runs in eight innings at an average of 92.58 so far,19-year-old Pawar has all the ingredients to sail him through to the next level.

Although he was dismissed after adding just one run to his overnight total of 154,the opening batsman received a standing ovation from the Mumbai dressing room at the St. Stephens ground on Tuesday. While Pawar was clearly miffed with his dismissal,his scores of 85 (Jharkhand),1,20*,(Himachal),19,29 (Delhi),187 (Karnataka),152 (Saurashtra) and 155 during the 2009-10 season at the under-19 level kept his team mates on their feet.

It was a bad ball to lose my wicket to,but unfortunately you dont always get what you want in cricket, Pawar said,speaking to Sportline. It is nice to get recognition from your team,but I would have liked to have played an even longer innings, he added.

Although he lives in the sub-city of Thane,Pawars schooling was at the Indian Education Society School in Bandra,Mumbai and he played his cricket in the same location at the MIG Club. Everybody knows MIG mainly because of Sachin Tendulkar. Every time he would come there to practice,all of us would be all eyes and ears, Pawar said.

Consistency has been the key to Pawars game from an early age. Pawar was the highest scorer for Mumbai at the under-15 level and the second highest at the under-19 level last year. In between,Pawar propelled Mumbai to clinch the Vijay Merchant Trophy with a 75 in the final against Punjab. The list goes on. When we reached the finals of the Harris Shield a few years back,we lost to Anjuman Islam,but I was had the most runs in the tournament.

Mr consistent

Pawar believes that he is able to accumulate all those runs because of his love for the longer format. Whenever I go into bat,I do not look to dominate the attack from the beginning. My aim is to play along the ground and find the gaps. That is exactly what I did on Monday. I like the old style of cricket, he said.

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Apart from Dravid,Pawar has another role model closer home in Mumbai skipper Wasim Jaffer. With the Ranji Trophy in its final match,Pawar hopes to get a look in during the 50-over games for the senior team.

I do not really know where I will play after I graduate from this age group,but as of now I hope I manage to make it to the one-day format this season. My main aim though is to gain a place in Mumbais Ranji team next season. To play for India is also obviously a dream and the bigger picture,but I want to take it one step at a time.