'Delhi players have an aggressive streak'

When Himmat Singh shifted to Chittaranjan Park in 2004 at the age of eight from Punjabi Bagh, it not only meant a change of house but also a shift in the choice of sport that he played. Coming from a lawn tennis background, he started enjoying “gully cricket on Sundays”. But at the advice of his father, he decided to concentrate on one game – Cricket –which became his career goal.

“Though I wanted to pursue both the sports and was trying to do that, my father advised me to pursue one at a time and do it with a confident resolve. That is how cricket happened to me,” says 19-year-old Singh. 

Singh has scored over 300 runs in the last season (2013-14) in Under-19 cricket and is currently leading the Delhi under-19 cricket side for the second consecutive time in the regional Cooch Behar Trophy. The middle-order batsman says that probably “playing in the narrow lanes of Delhi” has given him the confidence to represent the state, as well as, the country. “In Delhi, we play lots of one-day cricket. The other states play more of test matches. So, in that sense, all Delhiites have this aggressive streak which reflects in their game and specifically the straight shots that we play,” says Singh, who trains at Sonnet Cricket club under coaches Tarak Sinha and Devender Sharma.

Singh made his highest score of 181 runs against Tripura in Agartala in 2014 in the four-day Under-19 game after making 283 runs, including two centuries against Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, in the one-day format.

Singh grabbed a lot of eyeballs with consistent performances for the Delhi U-19 side in the Cooch Behar Trophy and he got his maiden entry into the senior team in domestic first-class cricket championship Ranji Trophy. However, Singh didn’t get a chance to make his debut. “I was thrilled when the call came but unfortunately, I didn’t make my debut. But the fact remains that it was special to share the dressing room with stalwarts like Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir,” recalls Singh.

“Exposure and experience” are two keywords that are preparing Singh for a spot in the national team. The right-hand batsman tells Metrolife, “Its every player’s dream to play for their country and it is the same for me. All I am working towards is learning and improvising on the go and understanding that the match is not over till the last ball.”

The young cricketer is all set to play against Bengal from November 14-17  (Cooch Behar Trophy) and though, he is “geared up”, he mentions, “A night before any match, I tell myself that I am going to celebrate a milestone like a century but when it actually happens on-field, all I end up doing is contemplating my next milestone. It’s never-ending.”