At 5 a.m., Sagar Virk was already en route to the cricket ground, while most of Patiala remained asleep. His early arrival underscores the dedication and preparation required for the upcoming match.
Sagar was overlooked for Punjab in his first year of under-16 cricket and missed out again the following year. U-19 is the main level. He kept turning up, and the reward was an India under-19 call-up. On the tour of Sri Lanka, a 134 in the first Youth ‘Test’.
The road was not always smooth. His coach, Himanshu Chawla, however, kept reminding him where the game could take him. “My coach showed a lot of belief in me. After returning home, he shared a dressing room with Abhishek Sharma in the Sher-e-Punjab T20 tournament for Amritsar Soormas. “During difficult moments, Abhishek bhaiya’s message was simple: ‘Nothing will happen, just bat properly.
He told me, ‘You can do it. Once you start playing there, you can even go on to play for India’,” Sagar told The Hindu . Abhishek, he says, was “very chilled out” and urged the youngsters to “play your own game”. We will get there.’” And those words gave all of us a lot of confidence,” he said.