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Avinash Sable, remember the name
Last week, Avinash Sable broke his own national record in the 3000m steeple chase at the Indian Grand Prix in Trivandrum with a timing of 8.16.21. It’s become habitual for Sable now - this is the seventh time he’s broken the national record for this event.
He broke the national record at the Tokyo Olympics but narrowly missed out on qualification for the finals. To qualify for the Olympics, he broke the national record in the heats of the World Championship and then did it again a couple of days later at the final.
The first time was in 2018, when he clocked 8.29.88 and broke a national record that had stood for 24 years. It’s a testament to his progression that he’s shaved off 13 seconds in the four years since. What makes the feat in 2018 more remarkable is the fact that he’d made his foray into athletics only three years prior.
Sable was a sepoy of the Indian army, deployed on the Siachen glacier. One thing became abundantly clear to Sable in the year and half he spent in frigid temperatures - this wasn’t a life he was cut out for.
"I felt I could do something else also. I picked up sport so I didn't have to do duties like at Siachen. Yeh duty mere se nahi hogi (I won't be able to do this sort of duty). When I was posted in (the garrison town of) Lalgarh Jattan, the other soldiers told me I should go and do sports and particularly running because I was always good in those training drills at the center," he said in an interview to ESPN.
While he started out in the Services cross-country team, he was introduced to steeple chase by the chief coach of the army cross country program. The fact that Sable hailed from Beed in Maharashtra helped his case; the village lacked good roads so he had to run everywhere, including 6km to school every day . Additionally, his coach believed that Beed produced “very hardy men who can tolerate a lot of stress and struggle”.
Sable has encountered numerous hurdles off the track in his journey to glory. He had to lose 16kg in 2017 when he began the steeple chase, in 2018 he broke his ankle and in an attempt to return to running quickly missed out on Asian Games qualification and in the buildup to the Olympics last year he lost one of his coaches to a heart attack. He’s also contracted COVID twice, prior to and post the Olympics.
But, Avinash surges on.
In Tokyo, he became only the second ever Indian to compete in the steeple chase. If he continues on this upward trajectory, he could become the first one to win a medal in it.
An Opening Weekend of Comebacks
The beauty of the IPL is that it puts the spotlight on the young and domestic cricketers, and gives them a platform to display their talents. A strong showing in the tournament has become a rite of passage that leads to the national team. India’s last five ODI debutants - Deepak Hooda, Venkatesh Iyer, Sanju Samson, Chetan Sakariya and Nitesh Rana - are a perfect demonstration of the IPL’s catalysing effect.
But, the opening weekend wasn’t about young blood. Right from Game 1, the dominant theme that emerged was resurgence.
Daylight saving came into effect in Europe on Sunday but the clocks were turned back in the Powerplay overs of the CSK-KKR game. Umesh Yadav, who went unsold in the first round of the auction and was picked up by KKR at his base price in the second round, ran rampage. He got the two openers in the three overs he bowled in the Powerplay and finished with 2/20 in his four. Not a bad outing for a player who’s played just two games across the last two seasons.
Ajnikya Rahane matched his teammate’s showing, with a brisk 44 in 34 balls. The innings felt like a throwback to the RR version of Rahane. In his last two years with Delhi, Rahane played only nine games and scored a mere 68 runs. In the post match interview after the CSK game, he spoke of McCullum’s influence on his game and the confidence that’s been put into him. Once dubbed a relic of the format, Rahane’s renaissance could come at KKR.
Sunday saw another strong bowling performance from a Yadav, with Kuldeep tearing through the MI top order. His three wicket haul included the dismissals of Pollard and Rohit and saw him named MOTM. Kuldeep’s crisis of confidence in the past two years has seen him relegated to the fringes of the India setup. He had an abysmal IPL season in 2020, bowling just 12 overs across 5 games and didn’t even get a look in for the following season. It’s why the verve in his performance on Sunday evoked such an outpouring on social media, with his fellow sultan of spin Yuzi Chahal being one of the first to laud his performance.
The young ‘uns may be knocking on the door but the rear guard won’t be shifting over so easily. You know the old adage - form is temporary, fortitude is permanent.
India, ICC Tournaments & No-Balls
A couple of days have passed since India’s loss to South Africa but the heart burn remains. With hindsight, the exit isn’t surprising - the preparation wasn’t ideal, the style of cricket was antiquated and there were a couple of dubious squad selections. And if we’re being honest, a team that’s lost four games doesn’t deserve to be in the semi-finals. But, the time for introspection will come later.
It’s the manner of exit that stings more than the exit itself. That Jhulan had to watch on from the sidelines, that Mithali and her have reached the end of the road, that Harman’s virtuoso performance went in vain and of course, that no-ball.
Deepti Sharma had got Mignon du Preez caught on the boundary in what would have been the penultimate ball of the game. It would have left the Proteas eight wickets down and needing three of the last ball. And then of course, Deepti was adjudged to have overstepped, du Preez was called back and went on to hit the winning runs.
The rollercoaster of that final over by Deepti Sharma is something we’ve all become accustomed to. A wicket of a no-ball in a crunch ICC event has become a staple part of Indian cricket.
Think back to the 2016 Men’s WT20 semi-final against West Indies where Lendl Simmons was dismissed twice on no-balls, the first when he was on 18 and the second when he was on 50. He went on to score 82 and powered West Indies to the final.
And do we even need to mention the Fakhar Zaman one from the 2017 Champions Trophy Final? It’s been five years since that game but the wound remains raw.
What will it take for this curse to be broken?
Persons of Interest
Mixed doubles pair Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran have been ranked 7th in the world as per the latest update of the ITTF World Ranking last week. It’s the highest an Indian pair has ever been ranked. Last month, they became the first Indian duo to break into the top 10.
The jump in ranking comes on the back of their showing at the World Table Tennis Contenders in Doha, where they defeated the World No.4 team of Hong Kong and bagged a silver medal.
“We had set a target that we want to break into the Top 10 in a year. We’ve done it in 7 months. That’s pretty quick, a meteoric rise and we’re happy about it,” said Gnanasekaran in an interview to Scroll.
In the past, Batra and Gnanasekaran won the Bronze at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. In 2021, they won the World Table Tennis Contenders title in Budapest and reached the quarterfinal of the World Championships.
If their upward trajectory continues, it could be a medal laden season for the duo in a year that will see them compete in the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
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