India under-19 opener Adarsh Singh grabbed the man-of-the-match award with his determined knock against Bangladesh, helping India to start with 84-run win in the opening match of the undr-19 Wold Cup. 

The southpaw showed his determination in a classy 76 to take India to 251 for 7 and earn 84-run win over Bangladesh.

His elder brother Ankit did not seem surprised by the attitude and revisited the tough financial times in the family that has shaped Adarsh’s personality. 

During the lockdown their father and Ankit lost their jobs, their mother, who worked in an Anganwadi, was the sole earning member. 

Still father would sell a plot of land to put the money in Adarsh’s name so that he can continue his cricket pursuit. Adarsh knows the family struggle and gambit on his cricket, and isn’t going to throw his wicket, revealed his brother.

The Singh family hails from Newada Ishwari Singh, a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur district and Narendra Kumar Singh shifted their base to Kanpur to give his children a good education. 

Speaking to Indian Express Ankit said, “My father used to work in Kanpur, and we moved here. Then he got a job in Mumbai and my mother (Manju Lata Singh) got a job in Anganwadi, a rural childcare centre. My father shifted to Mumbai while my mother moved back to our village. In the meanwhile, I completed my engineering, got a job and Adarsh’s game had improved significantly.” 

Then the lockdown came with a bag of troubles. Selling a plot to let his son play was not welcomed by the relatives and neighbors in Jaunpur.

“We had to g through hard times during the period. People said in our caste we generally don’t sell land, even if we do, it is for studies and the daughter’s marriage. They were against my father because he was selling it for his son’s cricketing dream,” laughed Ankit.

It was Adarsh’s stubbornness that forced his father to let him play cricket for one year with the condition that he would bid farewell to cricket and continue his studies if he failed to succeed. 

Within a year, he was in the state U-14 side, became captain in the next, and hasn’t looked back since.