City lad Nehal set for a new innings

Anil Datt
Ludhiana, February 12

Ludhiana cricketer Nehal Wadhera has been selected to captain the India “A” U-19 squad for the one-day matches in the upcoming series to be played against South Africa, Afghanistan and India “B”.

Left hand, top-order batsman from the Sarabha Nagar area of Ludhiana city also participated in the U-19 tour of Sri Lanka in July last year where he stunned everyone by scoring two half centuries.

In the first Test against Sri Lanka, Nehal scored a brilliant knock of 82 runs and interestingly, he started his international career by hitting a six. In the second Test, he scored 64 runs.

Similarly, he was part of the U-19 team for Asia Cup held at Dhaka (Bangladesh) in September, 2018.

His coach, Charanjit Bhangu, under whose guidance Nehal practises at the coaching centre run by the Ludhiana District Cricket Association at GRD Academy here, said Nehal’s performance in the Challengers Trophy held in Lucknow a few months ago helped him in donning the captain’s cap for the upcoming series.

“This would motivate other trainees to work hard so that they could catch the state selectors’ eye and found an opportunity to represent the country one day,” said the coach.

Nehal’s father Kamal Wadhera, who runs TCY and Better Think Group of Institutes, said this series would be starting from March 5 at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.

Otherwise known as a very cool and composed scorer, Nehal played a pivotal role in India Green XI picking the Challenger’s Trophy at Lucknow, he added.

His mother, Gurpreet Wadhera, a former professor, said Nehal’s world had always revolved around sports, particularly cricket. His consistency is his strength. Not even a single day goes in his life when he’s not trying to improve a little, she added.