One winter afternoon at Kalyani, near Kolkata, four years ago, not long before Covid-19 shut the world down, the Ranji Trophy match between Bengal and Hyderabad produced a fascinating passage of cricket. Two men bowled unchanged for 20 overs: it was one of the most hostile spells of pace bowling you could have come across in India’s domestic cricket.
Akash Deep and Mukesh Kumar were magnificent and claimed 11 wickets between them. While Akash is yet to play for India (he has been very much part of the India-A squads), Mukesh made his India debut in all three formats within a space of a fortnight, in the West Indies last year.
For someone who moved to Kolkata from a small town in Bihar (Gopalganj) to help his father’s taxi business, he hasn’t done badly. In 2014, he got selected in the Cricket Association of Bengal’s Vision 2020 programme, and his life changed.
