Sunday, February 9th, 2025

Started with boxing and athletics but became bowlers, two have special records


New Delhi. It is impossible to say where fate will take you. These three players had not even dreamt at the beginning of their careers that one day they would play cricket for Team India. Haryana’s Barinder Sran dreamt of making a name in boxing while Abhimanyu Mithun and Tinu Yohannan wanted to gain fame in the world of athletics. Abhimanyu Mithun had the desire to become the country’s top level javelin thrower while Kerala’s Tinu’s father TC Yohannan has won a gold medal for the country in the long jump event of the Asian Games. In such a situation, athletics was also Tinu’s first love.

During this time, a time came when these three players not only thought about leaving their original game and making a career in cricket but also made it a reality with hard work. Saran, Mithun and Tinu, all three played for India as fast bowlers. It is a different matter that despite some excellent performances, their international career did not last long. Left-arm fast bowler Saran has the record of performing best for India in a T20 International debut match, while Mithun has taken a hat-trick in all three formats (First Class, ODI and T20) in domestic cricket. In the T20 format, he/she took 5 wickets in an over.

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Barinder Sran: Became a fast bowler while doing boxing

Barinder Sran, born in Sirsa, Haryana, would have been a top-class boxer if he/she had not been a cricketer. To earn a name in boxing, he/she used to train in Bhiwani’s academy. Haryana has a glorious past in boxing and this small state has produced excellent players of wrestling and kabaddi apart from boxing. Barinder, a farmer’s son, once read an advertisement of Kings XI Punjab and from here he/she aroused the desire to become a cricketer. To learn the tricks of bowling, he/she joined former cricketer Amit Uniyal’s Mohali-based academy in 2011. he/she worked hard to fulfill his/her dream. Many times he/she used to cycle several kilometers from his/her village Kharar to Mohali. Being a left-arm fast bowler also became a ‘plus point’ for him/her. Sran’s hard work paid off and by performing brilliantly in domestic cricket, he/she was successful in getting a place in the Indian team in 2016.

On 12 January 2016, he/she made his/her international debut by playing ODI against Australia in Perth and took three wickets for 56 runs. In the match, Saran took the wickets of Aaron Finch, David Warner and Steve Smith. However, despite this performance, Team India had to face a 5-wicket defeat in the match. In June 2016 itself, Saran made his/her T20I debut against Zimbabwe in Harare and became the ‘Player of the Match’ by taking 4 wickets for 10 runs. This is still the best bowling performance by an Indian bowler in T20 International. Praising Barinder’s performance, legendary cricketer Yuvraj Singh once tweeted, ‘Barinder reminds me of young Zaheer Khan.’ However, Saran’s international career did not last long and he/she could play only 6 ODIs and 2 T20Is. he/she has 7 wickets in ODIs at an average of 38.42 and 6 wickets in T20s at an average of 6.83. On 22 June, Saran played his/her last international match in the form of T20 against Zimbabwe. Saran’s name also came into the limelight when he/she was bought by Punjab Kings for Rs 2.2 crore in 2018 for IPL and by Mumbai Indians in 2019 for a huge amount of Rs 3.4 crore. Saran has 18 wickets in 24 matches of IPL.

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Abhimanyu Mithun: Started bowling while throwing javelin

Barinder Sran, Abhimanyu Mithun, Tinu yohannan, Team India, Indian cricket team, Fast Bowler, Barinder Sran, Abhimanyu Mithun, Tinu yohannan, Team India, Indian cricket team, Fast bowler

The story of Karnataka’s Abhimanyu Mithun, who played 4 Tests and 5 ODIs for India in 2010-11, is similar to that of Barinder Sran. Abhimanyu was a well-known name in Karnataka in the javelin throw event of athletics but was unable to progress due to some reasons. Later, on the advice of a friend, he/she tried his/her hand at fast bowling and earned a lot of fame in domestic cricket. he/she also played for India. he/she has 9 wickets and 120 runs in four Tests and 3 wickets and 51 runs in 5 ODIs to his/her name. he/she played his/her last match in international cricket against West Indies in December 2011. Abhimanyu has achieved the feat of taking a hat-trick in all three formats of domestic cricket. he/she took a hat-trick in his/her Ranji Trophy debut match against UP in 2009 for Karnataka. After this, he/she took the wickets of Shahrukh Khan, M. Mohammed and Murugan Ashwin on consecutive balls against Tamil Nadu in the final of Vijay Hazare Trophy (ODI) in October 2019. Just a month later, Abhimanyu Mithun repeated this feat in the T20 format. he/she took 5 wickets including a hat-trick in an over against Haryana in the semi-final of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (ODI). Mithun dismissed Himanshu Rana, Rahul Tewatia, Sumit Kumar and Amit Mishra on the first 4 balls of his/her over. he/she took the wicket of Jayant Yadav on the last ball of the over. Mithun has said goodbye to first class cricket in 2021.

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Tinu Yohannan: Left high jump to become a cricketer

Barinder Sran, Abhimanyu Mithun, Tinu yohannan, Team India, Indian cricket team, Fast Bowler, Barinder Sran, Abhimanyu Mithun, Tinu yohannan, Team India, Indian cricket team, Fast bowler

Kerala’s tall fast bowler Tinu Yohannan’s first love was not cricket, but athletics. his/her father TC Yohannan has won a gold medal in long jump for the country. In the 1974 Tehran Asian Games, ‘Senior Yohannan’ became the first Asian athlete to cover a distance of more than 8 meters by jumping 8.07 meters. his/her record remained intact for three decades. Tinu also used to participate in high jump events in the beginning. Later he/she chose cricket as a career. Tinu honed his/her bowling skills at the MRF Pace Academy. he/she played for India as a fast bowler from 2001 to 2002. However, he/she could play only three Tests and three ODIs. he/she took 5 wickets each in both Tests and ODIs. 45-year-old Tinu, who has retired from cricket, is currently serving at the High Performance Center of Kerala Cricket Association (KCA).

tag: Cricket records, Indian Cricket Team, Team India, Test cricket

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