A chance encounter with cricket, TNCA first division league and Ashwin’s guidance: The making of Vidarbha all-rounder Harsh Dubey

A chance encounter with cricket, TNCA first division league and Ashwin’s guidance: The making of Vidarbha all-rounder Harsh Dubey

Hyderabad had to bear the brunt of both facets of Harsh Dubey’s game during its final Ranji Trophy Group B encounter against Vidarbha at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur.

Before polishing off Hyderabad’s batting with a six-wicket haul on the fourth morning, Harsh hit twin fifties to help the team recover from a first-innings deficit and post a formidable target on the board.

In the first innings, the 22-year-old came in with the home side reeling at 80 for six. The youngster took on the Hyderabad bowling, dealing in boundaries against senior pacers C.V. Milind and Mohammed Siraj. Seven fours and four sixes later, he departed for 65, taking his team to a respectable 190. 

|

“You never know how quickly the last few wickets can fall. My plan was to score as many runs as possible. I was only reacting to the ball being delivered, trying to maximise the runs,” Harsh told  Sportstar on the sidelines of the encounter.

Harsh suggests that his ability to go big in such situations stems from him undergoing situation-based practice sessions during the offseason.

“I give myself situations, if we are four or five down, how do I play? Which bowler can I go after if it is the last wicket? All this planning and preparation happens before the season,” he said.

Harsh’s contributions with the bat have been few and far between this season – he had scored only a solitary fifty before the final game – but with the ball in hand, the 22-year-old has spun Vidarbha to six victories in seven league games.

The rich vein of form has thrust Harsh to the top of the Ranji Trophy wicket charts with 55 scalps at an average of 14.50, including six five-wicket hauls.

|

“I haven’t been doing anything different. Maybe it is because I am now the first-choice spinner in the team,” Harsh said about his purple patch.

The departure of veteran Aditya Sarwate to Kerala before the domestic season had opened the doors for Harsh to stake claim for a permanent spot and the 22-year-old grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

In fact, upon learning at the end of the match that he had equalled Sarwate  bhaiyya’s record of 55 wickets in a season for Vidarbha, a wide smile appeared on the young spinners’s face. 

Harsh’s rendezvous with cricket came about due to a wrong turn during a scooter journey.

Harsh and his father, Surendra Dubey, were returning from the market after buying his fourth-grade textbooks a few days after his father’s transfer to Nagpur.

“As a CISF official, my journey was only from home to the airport and back. I was a little confused about the route and took a wrong turn. After finally figuring out the direction, we chanced upon a building called Ruby Cricket Club,” Surendra told  Sportstar.

The detour signalled the start of his love for the game, which according to Surendra, has almost become an obsession. “He used to dream about taking catches at 2 a.m. as a kid. Even now, he continues to spin the ball in his hands or shadow bats whenever he is at home,” he added.

“I still remember, he came with his dad to the academy, a chubby little boy,” said former Services cricketer Dilip Das, Harsh’s coach at Ruby Cricket Club.

“He was a natural bowler. I did not have to instruct him how to bowl but I realised he did not complete his follow through. So, I made him bowl medium pace for a while,” Das recollects. Surendra’s suggestion to the coach that his son was actually a spinner fell on deaf ears. “‘I know what I am doing,’ I told him,” added Das. 

Surendra says he never doubted his son’s talent but he truly realised the extent of his ability when, at 12 years old, players representing the State in the Ranji Trophy invited him to bowl at them during their practice sessions.

What followed was a meteoric rise through the age-group levels, where he picked bucketloads of wickets, helping Vidarbha to its first-ever title, the Vijay Merchant Trophy, in 2016.

“He was always a wicket-taker. I never changed his bowling action. I was more concerned about his batting, so I always asked him how many runs he scored rather than how many wickets he picked after an age-group game,” Das said.

“I wanted him to succeed as an all-rounder at the highest level and that is what he’s proving now. He’s a very cool-headed boy and has excellent work ethic, and that’s what makes him successful,” he added.

“ Ek ladke ke safalta mein bohoton ka haath hota hai [Contributions from multiple people make a person successful],” Surendra said.

In Harsh’s story, the single most inspirational figure among those who bred him is former India all-rounder R. Ashwin.

Amidst a search for an all-rounder for his TNCA first division team, Ashwin had approached then Rajasthan Royals net bowler and Vidarbha pacer Rajneesh Gurbani for a few suggestions.

“Harsh had just returned after the Col. C.K. Nayudu Trophy final when Rajneesh’s call came. He had picked seven wickets in the final against Mumbai in Ahmedabad. ‘ Main khelunga’ [I will play] was his response,” Surendra said.

In his very first season with Mylapore Recreation Club ‘A’, Dubey led the side to its first title, scoring a hundred and picking up four wickets in the summit clash against Vijay CC.

“It was a very good experience, sharing a dressing room with him [Ashwin]. The wickets there either turn or are slow and flat so I learnt a lot about how to use pace and field positions,” Harsh said.

“If you are a professional there, you have to contribute if your team has to win. That’s a habit I developed after playing in Chennai,” he added.

There is an almost god-like reverence when Surendra talks about Ashwin. He credits the off-spinner for making Harsh the bowler he is today.

“I would like to say a big thanks to Ashwin  bhaiyya for everything he has done for Harsh. His game improved tremendously after playing alongside him,” Surendra said.

“How can I ever forget the man who got my son his first-ever sponsorship with SG. Even today, the first photo in our drawing room is that of Harsh and Ashwin  bhaiyya standing together,” he added.

“If an India international is noticing your kid and taking him under his wing, what more can you want as a parent,” an emotional Surendra opined.

“Tears rolled down mine and my wife’s eyes when we first met Ashwin during a Test match against Australia in Nagpur. It was such a memorable moment for me.”

With an abundance of talent, the performance to back it and a newfound focus on fitness after an Under-19 World Cup snub a couple of years ago, Harsh will hope he can spin his way into national contention and tread the same path as his mentor.