The CFL Premier Division this season, without the presence of foreign footballers, also witnessed the emergence of a Bengali defender along with a few Indian strikers. 

He is Saurav Das, one of the key members of Diamond Harbour FC for the last two seasons. His solid performance against Mohun Bagan in the CFL Premier Division this season earned him accolades from the team's Spanish coach Kibu Vicuna as well as his captain Abhishek Das. 

Saurav who hails from Rajpur in South 24 Parganas has another precise quality. He already has established himself as a long-throw specialist. He remembered, “My long-throw assists helped Diamond Harbour FC score six goals in the CFL last season. I took part in 13 matches last season and participated in eight matches for the team this season already.”

Talking about long-throw specialists in Bengal and Indian football, three to four names hardly can be mentioned like Naushad Musa, Raju Gaikwad, and Dhanachandra Singh who could offer 60 to 70 meters' throw from the sideline. 

Saurav has added his name to the list and in a bid to strengthen the quality, he divulged, "I used to do long throw since my childhood. It was spontaneous. Now I practice it separately even after the scheduled training. Even when I stay at home, I practice long-throw at my local ground with a medicine ball to increase the power. I was more benefitted following the advice on long-throw from Dhanachandra Singh when I was with Mohun Bagan.” 

Saaurav's current age is 23 years. Still, he has enough experience already in his football career so far. His professional career began with the Under-12 team of Mohun Bagan in 2012-13. Saurav is indebted to Amiya Ghosh for scouting him. 

He expressed thankfulness to Jo Paul Ancheri at Bagan's Durgapur Academy where he had a four-year stint. In his long seven-year journey with the Mariners Saurav participated in several prestigious competitions including Under-16, Under-18 I-leagues, and Under-19 IFA Shield. He graduated to Mohun Bagan seniors, practicing under Khalid Jamil's coaching and then again for two months under Kibu Vicuna's tutelage. That was in 2018-19. He also donned Mohammedan Sporting shirts in 2019-20. 

He also did not forget to reveal how he has been benefitted by Kibu's training style. Saurav mentioned, “Kibu sir's whole training system goes with ball and it helps the footballers immensely to gain control, and possession. He shows us how modern football is played.” 

During that phase, his major regret was being ruled out of the Under-17 Indian team for the Under-17 World Cup due to severe injury. That was in 2017 and the biggest blow Saurav received in his career so far was in 2021 when East Bengal, despite having signed him a contract ruled him out of the squad completely. Saurav explained, "I signed a contract but did not even receive the contract copy. Then I was assured of being in East Bengal's reserve-team list. But my name was not also in the list. I repeatedly called the representative of the club's investor at that time, Shree Cement, but did not receive any response.” 

Saurav went through a big setback during that period. But later on, the negligence turned out a challenge to overcome. He added, “The negligence drove me to better my game standard every day. My effort is to take my game to the level when club will realize the mistake of throwing me away.”

In this process reading novels of sports written by legendary writer Moti Nandy, have played the role of catalyst. He explained, "I often read the novels written by legendary novelist Mati Nandy. I read 'Stopper' where he has portrayed the indomitable fight of Kamal Guha against the politics in Maidan. He is also a defender. I get a lot of inspiration going through his character.”

The reflection of reading those novels was vivid in Saurav’s voice when he uttered, “I do not think of earning money by playing in ISL. Rather my dream is to don India shirts on the basis of my performance and I aim to establish myself as a reputed Bengali footballer in Indian football. You know how difficult it is now to find recognized Bengali footballers in Indian football after Pritam Kotal, Prabir Das, Subhashish Roy Chowdhury, and Rahim Ali."