Talent comes in all shapes and sizes and at all ages. There are many stories of veterans defying age at the dusk of their life while there are also tales of young prodigies in different fields of life who have shocked the world.
Following a similar story, Adwik Jena, a five-year-old cricketer from Odisha has now impressed all and sundry with his tremendous 360 degree batting at the nets.
Cricket lovers in Bhubaneswar, the Capital city of Odisha are in awe of this kid's batting prowess with which he effortlessly plays all orthodox and unorthodox cricketing shots with elan. Many of them have even become fans of this batting wizard.
Born to Abhimanyu Jena and Annapurna Parida, Adwik showed interest in cricket when he was just two and half years old.
“Adwik loved to watch cricket matches on TV and it was the only way to pacify the young bloke. He also loved to play cricket in his house and wouldn’t sleep until his father played with him for some time in the night. The kid was cricket crazy and his father finally started giving him proper coaching at two and half years age,” said Adwik’s mother Annapurna.
Adwik, who is a southpaw, loves Team India's batting maestro Virat Kohli and former stylish left-hander Yuvraj Singh and wants to emulate them both.
“I love to watch Kohli and Yuvi and want to play like them. I also cherish the dream to play for India in future,” said Adwik.
Adwik’s father has hired a local coach for the kid who has a height of 3.9ft. Adwik practises for three to four hours at nets on a daily basis to fine tune his batting skills.
“The kid is pretty serious in his batting and he practises meticulously at the nets on a daily basis. I have a lot of confidence on him. I am sure that he will play cricket in a higher level in future,” said Adwik’s father Abhimanyu.
Now what has most elated Adwiki is that he is also getting online tips from the coaching team of former Team India left hander Suresh Raina to learn the subtle nuances of batting.
“We all are surprised to witness the talent, hard work and determination of the little guy who is a genuine cricket prodigy. This kind of consistent momentum could land him in the Indian team in future for sure,” said an elderly fan of the wonder kid.
(Edited by Suryakant Jena)