Basavanagudi & Bangalore South, March 2013
March brought with it a shift. Not of seasons, but of stakes.
The mornings no longer greeted Arjun Desai with the cool mist of early Bangalore dawns. Instead, a dry heat clung to the city like a second skin. Even before the sun fully rose, the concrete lanes of Basavanagudi began to bake, releasing stored heat from the previous day. The red soil of the nets turned powdery. Sweat formed quicker. Tempers flared easier. And so did opportunities.
Arjun felt it in his bones. This was no ordinary summer. This was the summer—the one that could change the course of his cricketing journey.
He had completed five weeks of intense, bare-bones training under Coach Murali's brutal yet brilliant tutelage. His strokes were sharper, more compact. His ambidextrous bowling was still raw, but it now had shape—geometry in motion. And yet, despite the bruises, the cracked bats, and the hundreds of net balls faced and delivered, there was still no match play.
No arena to test if the forge had indeed strengthened the blade.
That changed with a single notice on the Basavanagudi Academy board.
The Summer League Trials
Jayanagar National Grounds – March 14–16
KSCA-Affiliated U-16 Summer League Club Trials
Arjun stared at the sheet, rereading it like a riddle.
Coach Nayak's voice came from behind, "You're going."
Arjun turned. "But I'm not registered yet."
Nayak didn't blink. "You will be. I'm signing the recommendation."
A heartbeat passed. Arjun's eyes widened. "Really?"
"You're ready. Or at least ready enough to be tested," Nayak replied, handing him a form. "You'll represent our academy. Summer League is not polished cricket—it's hot, fast, and merciless. Perfect place to see if you can thrive when it matters."
Preparation Week: Six Days of Fire
Murali dialed up the pressure.
The next six days turned brutal.
Murali intensified Arjun's training. The broken bats remained, but the drills became shorter, sharper, and more situational.
"Bat like you've already played fifteen overs. No time to settle," Murali barked one morning.
Arjun would pad up in the early heat, facing yorker after yorker from three net bowlers alternating deliveries. Every fifth ball, Murali tossed in a full toss or a bouncer to force unpredictability. Arjun had to adjust instantly, no second thought allowed.
His arms burned. His eyes stung from the sweat. Yet he didn't complain. Somewhere deep inside, a clarity was forming.
You don't wait for the game to slow down. You sharpen yourself to speed up.
Murali also introduced something new—match-scenario drills.
"You're on 41, team needs 12 from 9. No second chances. Go."
Or, "Chasing 140, you're in at 2/10. Survive the next four overs."
They played entire scenarios within the nets. Each session taught him something vital—when to attack, when to nudge, when to absorb pressure. When to breathe, and when to break free.
And when the bowling sessions resumed, Murali asked him to bowl four overs every day. Two with the right hand. Two with the left. To both right-handed and left-handed batters.
No excuse if the ball slipped. "Real games don't care," Murali said. "The sun won't wait. The batsman won't wait. Either your ball lands right, or it gets dispatched."
By March 13th, Arjun could barely lift his arms. But something had shifted. His instincts were quicker. His body remembered things his mind hadn't fully processed.
It was time.
Day 1: Trial by Dust and Expectation
Jayanagar National Grounds – March 14, 2013
Jayanagar National Grounds was buzzing. The Summer League Trials were more than just selection—they were a battlefield of Bangalore's finest 13-to-16-year-olds, all vying for spots in one of the twenty KSCA-affiliated clubs.
Teams like Spartan Union, Jayanagar Colts, Vijayanagar Warriors, South End Cricket Club, and Rising Youth SC scouted aggressively during these matches.
Arjun arrived at 7:30 AM sharp. The air was thick, not just with heat, but with ambition. Boys were padding up, doing explosive pushups, shadow-batting like gladiators visualizing the arena.
He didn't know anyone. Didn't speak. Just found a patch of shade near a neem tree, laid his kit down, and observed.
When his name was called out—"Arjun Desai, Basavanagudi Academy"—he jogged forward, eyes calm.
He was placed in Trial Team C, set to face Trial Team E in a 15-over match.
The openers from Team C flopped. 12/2 in 3 overs. Arjun was sent in at No. 4.
The sun was blazing. The pitch was cracked and unpredictable. And the opposition bowler—tall, slingy—was generating steep bounce from a length.
Don't fight the pitch, Arjun reminded himself. Flow with it.
His first scoring shot was a late dab behind point—just a single. Then a pull off his hips for two. Then came the fifth over.
The bowler pitched short, expecting Arjun to duck. Arjun rocked back and upper-cut over third man for four. Not power. Just precision.
Next over, he switch-hit a leg-spinner for a boundary through point, and murmurs rippled through the sparse crowd.
"He switched hands—did you see that?"
By the time he walked back, he was unbeaten on 28 (16 balls), with a strike rate that caught the eye of a few clipboard-holding selectors on the sidelines.
But it was what came next that sealed his reputation.
Bowling Chaos, Tamed
Team E began chasing 118.
At the 9-over mark, they were 72/2. Arjun was tossed the ball—his right arm off-spin first.
First over: 7 runs. Tight, but not special.
Second over: 1 run and a wicket—stumped off a sharp off-break that dipped late.
Third over: He switched to left-arm.
The batsman didn't realize until the moment of release—and was completely beaten by a drifting delivery that landed in the rough and turned square.
Bowled.
Fourth over: Two dot balls, then a googly that nearly got a caught-and-bowled.
He ended with 4-0-19-2, including one over of left-arm spin and three of right-arm.
The scorers took notes.
Trial Match: Trial Team C vs Trial Team E
Venue: Jayanagar National Grounds
Format: 15 overs per side
Team C – Batting First
Batsman Runs Balls 4s 6s Strike Rate
---------------------------------------------------------
Pratyush (Opener) 6 11 1 0 54.5
Imran (Opener) 2 6 0 0 33.3
Nikhil (No.3) 9 10 1 0 90.0
Arjun Desai (No.4) 28* 16 4 0 175.0
Harsha (Captain) 19 14 2 1 135.7
Aditya (Wk) 24 20 2 1 120.0
Extras 15
Total 118/5 in 15 overs
Notable Moments:
Arjun's switch-hit boundary in the 6th over silenced the crowd.A cheeky upper-cut over third man had the clipboard-holding scouts scribbling.
Team E – Chasing 119
Bowler Overs Runs Wickets Economy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ravi (Med Pace) 3 22 0 7.3
Parth (Left Arm) 2 14 1 7.0
Arjun Desai (Off + Left) 4 19 2 4.75
Harsha 3 26 1 8.7
Varun 3 21 1 7.0
Team E – 108/6 in 15 overs
Team C wins by 10 runs
Arjun's Bowling:
2 overs of off-spin: 1/7 (including a stumping) ; 2 overs of left-arm spin: 1/12 (clean bowled off a drifting delivery)
Day 2: The Unexpected Call, The Call from Rising Youth SC
After the trials, Arjun returned home exhausted. But he couldn't sleep.
Every replay, every ball, every twitch of the wrist played back in his mind.
The call came at 8:13 AM the next morning.
"Arjun Desai?"
"Yes."
"This is Nihar from Rising Youth Sports Club. We saw your performance yesterday. We'd like to offer you a place in our U-16 Summer League squad. First match is on March 21st. Practice begins March 18th at Chikkapet Grounds. Be there."
He couldn't believe it.
"Are you... sure?"
Nihar chuckled. "We don't call unless we are."
A Club of Strugglers and Spark
Rising Youth SC wasn't the flashiest outfit—but it had a history of nurturing underdogs.. Their alumni included Ranji reserves, and one lad who had warmed the bench for Kolkata Knight Riders.
Arjun was issued a jersey—blue with gold stripes—number 73. Not a famous number. But it was his now.
At the first team practice, he found himself among all kinds—technicians, bruisers, spinners, express pacers, even a wicketkeeper who practiced catching with a brick in each glove.
At his first session, Arjun met the team:
Nihar (Captain): A gritty, middle-order right-hander who'd been dropped from Jayanagar Colts two seasons ago. Played with a chip on his shoulder. Faizan: Left-arm pacer, unpredictable but raw pace in the high 120s.Rahul "Brick-Hands": Wicketkeeper who trained with bricks in his gloves to improve hand strength. Jumpy, superstitious, brilliant behind the stumps.Jaydeep: Off-spinner, deeply religious, refused to bowl until his thread was tied correctly. Deadly in dry conditions.Neel: Arjun's rival in nets—a right-arm leggie with a knack for sledging, always trying to rattle Arjun's switch-hitting.
Coach Santosh, mid-40s, wiry as a banyan root, had once played for Karnataka U-23 before a knee injury ended his career. Now, he lived for summers like these.
"I don't care if your dad's a selector or you trained in England," he barked. "Summer League is earned. You perform, you stay. You flop, you carry water."
Arjun nodded.
By the end of training, he had bowled three overs—both arms—and cracked four boundaries in the death-overs nets. Santosh didn't smile, but he muttered to his assistant:
"That kid… he's fire waiting to catch."
At Home: Socks for the Journey
When Arjun came home that evening, his shirt was salt-stained with sweat, and his hands carried fresh calluses. Meena looked up from the stove.
"You're late," she said.
"I got picked. Summer League. Rising Youth SC."
She didn't smile. Just nodded. Then said, "Eat first. Talk later."
But as he bent to untie his shoelaces, she brought out something from her cupboard—a new pair of socks. Plain white.
"Your old ones won't survive summer."
He grinned. "Thanks, Amma."
Epilogue: First League of Fire
That night, under the ceiling fan's soft whir, Arjun lay staring at his blue jersey—No. 73. An odd number. No superstar wore it. But now, it was his.
He thought of the boys with better bats, fancier kits. But none had practiced with broken gear. None had played until their knuckles bled in chalk box matches. None had to invent a way—like switch-hitting—not for flair, but survival.
This wasn't the IPL. Not yet Karnataka. But this—Rising Youth SC in the brutal Summer League—was the first circle of fire.
And Arjun was ready to burn his name into it.