Father A Truck Driver, India U19 Star Harvansh Singh Refused To Move To Canada. Now, Picked For England Tour

19-year-old batting sensation Ayush Mhatre will lead India U-19 during their upcoming tour of England. The month-long tour will include a 50-over warm-up match, a five-match Youth One-Day series, and two multi-day matches against the England Lions. Mhatre has impressed in his maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign, scoring 206 runs in six games at a remarkable strike rate of 187.27. The 16-man squad also features 14-year-old batting prodigy Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who recently became the youngest batter to smash an IPL centur while playing for Rajasthan Royals against the Gujarat Titans.

Abhigyan Kundu, who will also serve as the wicketkeeper, has been named vice-captain of the side, while Harvansh Singh is another option in that department.

Harvansh, who plays domestic cricket at junior level for Saurashtra, slammed a century last year during a youth Test against Australia U-19.

A few years back, Harvansh had the option of moving to Canada, but he decided to stay in India. His father, Damandeep Singh, is a truck driver in Canada. He stays with his mother in India, while rest of his family members are in Canada.

With Harvansh set to embark on his first overseas tour, Damandeep revealed his son refused to move to Canada so that he can live his dream of representing India in international cricket.

“15-16 ghante truck chalaane ke baad neend kahaan khulti hai (After driving a truck for 15-16 hours, you can’t wake up that easily from a mobile’s vibration),” Damandeep told TimesofIndia.com over the phone from Brampton.

“There are so many congratulatory messages. It feels good. It brings back so many memories of when Harvansh said ‘no’ to me about moving to Canada. He was rigid, and he’s living his dream,” Damandeep told The Times of India (TOI).

Harvansh idolised Yuvraj Singh while growing up and turned southpaw because of the legendary India all-rounder.

“My elder brother and I were crazy about cricket. We used to play for the sake of a hobby. Even Rajkot is 200 km away from our city. It was only in 2012 when the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) opened an academy in our town. I enrolled Harvansh in it when he was six. He picked up ‘keeping from me, as I used to don the gloves as well. But he turned southpaw because of Yuvraj Singh. He’s a massive Yuvraj fan and hasn’t seen peak Yuvraj, but he was obsessed with the video of him hitting six sixes off Stuart Broad,” he added.