Soumajit Dey: Few days back Indian captain Virat Kohli described a video of a young cricket prodigy as ‘unreal’. The Indian captain in his reply to former England batsman Kevi Pietersen’s instagram post also enquired where he hailed from. Well after 24 hours Xtra Time managed to trace the cricket prodigy. The 3 year 2 months old Sheikh Shahid is from Behala in 24 Parganas (S) in Bengal. More interestingly it is the same area where former India captain and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly come from.
According to his father Sheikh Samsher, a barber by profession, “My son was watching a cricket match between India and Australia with me when he was two and half years old. While watching he grew an interest to play cricket. That’s when I bought him a bat and a pair of gloves.”
Little Shahid surprised his father by playing an exquisite drive the first time he held the cricket bat.
“He amazed me by playing the drives perfectly. He sat in front of the television and watched Virat bat. I started giving him practice daily since then. I also took him to a local coaching centre but I was told that he is too young to get into the coaching centre,” says Samsher.
Samsher requested the coach to see him for a while. What followed was simply unbelievable by Sheikh Samsher. Little Shahid impressed the coaching staff of the centre with his brilliant drives. He was soon drafted into the coaching centre in Vivekanada Park.
A video clip of little Shahid in his diapers playing some classic cricket shots has been going viral ever since England cricketer Kevin Piteresen shared it on his instagram account. The sight of the kid wearing a pair of gloves and playing some exquisite lofted straight drivers as well as cover drives with his plastic bat is just unreal. Unsurprisingly, the talented kid has left the cricket fans as well as a number of cricketers in awe of himself.
Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen was so impressed with the kid that he went on to ask India skipper Virat Kohli whether he could pick the cricket prodigy in his team. And Virat Kohli did not take long to respond as he too made it clear that was blown away by the kid’s shot-making.
Cricket has seen several talents make a name for themselves even before turning 18. Two cricketers whose name comes to mind immediately as child prodigies are Sachin Tendulkar, and Virat Kohli. There are several young talents all across the world trying to become the next big thing. Will little Shahid can go on to become the next big thing in Indian cricket, only time will say.