Saurabh Tiwary was one of the hardest hitters of his time, but he reckons he could not have competed with today’s batters.

“I won’t even be in the top 100 when it comes to hitting ability,” Saurabh tells The Hindu with a smile on a hot afternoon at the Keenan Stadium in Jamshedpur.

“Every second batter is hitting so well. Even a 15-year-old boy, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, is dominating the IPL today.”

He says cricket has become almost a game of power-hitting. “Not just T20s, but One-Dayers as well,” he said.

“People are getting double hundreds in 43 or 44 overs.”

Saurabh — whose M.S. Dhoni-like long mane also caught the eye as much as big sixes — played three ODIs for India and made a mark at the IPL in its early days, also has an excellent record in First Class cricket, in which he scored more than 8,000 runs (22 hundreds and 34 fifties) at an average of more than 47.

After his career ended a couple of years ago, he moved to administration, taking over as the secretary of the Jharkhand State Cricket Association last year.

“When you have played cricket for 24 years, you know what a cricketer needs, and I have been trying to help the players from Jharkhand,” he said.

“I believe a cricket association comes up from cricketers; it is not a case of cricketers coming up from associations. So I ensure our players are given all the opportunities; since we don’t have facilities, our players, male or female, are free to use the Ranchi stadium whenever they want.”

He wants to achieve as an administrator what he could not as a player. “I have won the Vijay Hazare Trophy, but never the Ranji Trophy or the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy,” he said. “I want Jharkhand to win those tournaments.”

Saurabh has won a bigger trophy, though. He was part of the Indian team that won the under-19 World Cup in 2008 in Malaysia. Among his teammates were Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Abhinav Mukund and Manish Pandey.

“It was a dream come true, of course, but I was run out in the final (against South Africa),” he said.

“I remember Kohli used to play with the same hunger. If he bats tomorrow, he will play with the same passion. He plays his cricket with so much passion and honesty. Even then he had so much focus and dedication”.

In an unrelenting cricket calendar where monotony can set in over run-of-the-mill bilateral assignments, a multi-disciplinary event like the Asian Games holds the promise of a novel offering.

The competition provides a unique opportunity for India’s high-profile cricketers to mingle with athletes from other sports whilst attempting to win gold for the nation. Shreyas Iyer & Co. will be looking to do just that when they travel to Japan for the continental spectacle’s T20 tournament from September 24 to October 3.

This will be the Indian cricket team’s second appearance at the Asian Games, having pocketed gold in Hangzhou, China, in 2023.

Sunil Gavaskar hopes the Men in Blue savour the experience of a multi-sport carnival. “You get to know and talk to athletes from other sports, and get to know what makes them tick. It will be a wonderful experience,” he said during a virtual media interaction.

Though reports have emerged of the arrangements in Japan for the cricketers not being up to scratch, Gavaskar emphasised that such obstacles shouldn’t dissuade the game’s stakeholders from exploring newer markets.

“If cricket has to become a global sport, it has to be played in different parts of the world. At the Olympics, for example, you could play in a city where cricket isn’t generally played. You might not always get the best facilities,” the 77-year-old opined. “For the game to grow, I would encourage them to play wherever possible.”

If cricket is to pique the curiosity of spectators at the Asian Games, the boy wonder that is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will have to show up. The spunky 15-year-old, who cracked two half-centuries against Zimbabwe after a baptism by fire against England, will hope to continue his upward flight.

“Look in T20 cricket, you can’t expect consistency. Vaibhav is the kind of batter who can win you three or four out of 10 games. But he’s somebody with whom we need to have patience,” assessed Gavaskar.

(Watch cricket at Asian Games 2026 on Sony Sports and Sony LIV from September 17).

D. Deepesh, just 18, has created a buzz with pace for Madurai Panthers in the TNPL this season.

The 2026 u-19 World Cup winner has repeatedly crossed 140 kph, even touching 146 kph. But he’s also been varying his speed, having worked on that with mentor Sandeep Warrier during the two-week gap after the TNCA First Division League.

“I got a good idea. That’s been helpful. We didn’t just work on speed alone. We worked on slower ones and yorkers, and bowling according to the situation. Speed is my natural ability,” Deepesh said after his team’s third successive win, against SKM Salem Spartans, at the NPR College Ground here on Monday.

“Ever since I started playing in the u-19 circuit, we have spoken a lot and have been working closely. He has been very helpful to me.

“In fact, I would say he’s the only person I’ve always spoken to about my bowling. Even this morning, I spoke with him. We discuss my bowling plan before almost every match,” Deepesh, who finished with three for 38 after conceding 45 in three overs against Vida Kovai Kings, said.

The spell followed a tidy one for 25 in the opening match against Trichy Grand Cholas. The youngster acknowledged the support he received after the initial setback.

“Even after I got hit, the team didn’t let me down. They were very encouraging. The bowling coach (assistant coach A.C. Prathiban) backed me a lot. We spoke about it. Pressure got to me in that situation. So today [Monday], I focused on bowling without letting the pressure get to me,” he said.

And he delivered on the promise, taking three for 18 in his last two overs after going for 20 runs in his first two.