The label of Taruwar Kohli’s bat isn’t just the manufacturer’s branding, but his family name of sorts too. BAS in Jalandhar is known for manufacturing cricket bats internationally, but now they can also flaunt the fact that they have produced a star batsman in the form of the 19-year-old Indian opener too. Taruwar Kohli’s unbeaten knock of 63 didn’t just help India reach the semi-final after beating England by seven wickets, but also gave him the Man of the Match award and made him the highest run-getter in the tournament so far.Even if he were not a cricketer, considering his family’s business interest, and picking up a bat almost every day of his life, it was an eventuality waiting for Taruwar. “I ended up at a cricket academy and that changed the way I looked at bats,” says the 19-year-old Indian opener, who is a bit shy to admit that getting top quality bats wasn’t an issue even when he was very young.The Jalandhar academy that Taruwar speaks about happens to be at Burton Park and has produced two international cricketers, Harbhajan Singh and Vikram Rathore. And from the way things have shaped up for Taruwar here — three 50s in the last three games — Burton Park’s Hall of Fame might see a new edition very soon. Bad startThings didn’t start too well for Taruwar at the World Cup, though. He batted at No 8 in the warm-up games, and it was only after the failure of regular opener Abhinav Mukund that the team management asked Taruwar to pad up first. “I had never opened in my life, though I bat at No 3 for the Punjab under-19 team. Actually, it is not much different, since I was used to playing the new ball,” says the stand-in opener with an outstanding record.Taruwar’s risk-free approach in the initial over and his ability to stick around has come in handy for India in all four games so far. Batting first, India have crossed 250 twice, thanks to Taruwar guarding one end. And he has also ensured that India are safely home when chasing tricky low scores. Today, as India chased 147, and their mainstay batsmen — Tanmay Srivastava and Virat Kohli — were out in quick succession, Taruwar held fort. Lots of patienceAsk him if he doesn’t get a blood rush or is tempted to hit big strokes, and he talks about the loads of patience he has. But it seems the fear of being slotted as a stubborn opener surfaces in him somewhere as he is quick to add, “Apne paas dono gears hain. If need be I can score very fast also.”Adaptability is something that Taruwar is proud of. And that’s the reason he insists he doesn’t have any role model or any fixed batting template in mind. “See, when I started my cricket at Burton Park, Rathore had left. Harbhajan does come there — and we speak to each other — but we don’t get a chance to bat against him. I have never copied any batsman since I know everyone has to have his own style. Finally, it’s you who is batting in the middle,” he says.Has he set any target for himself in this World Cup? He treats it like a mundane query. “Like everybody here, I want to win the World Cup. And no, I am not thinking about the India cap or anything like that right now,” he says.No hollow sound from this BAS bat. Brief ScoresEngland U-19: 146 (JWA Taylor 41, B C Brown 24; Abdullah 3/29, Jadeja 2/23, Kaul 2/21) lost to India U-19: 149/3 (T Kohli 63 n.o., S P Goswami 26, T Srivastava 22)
