India U-19 wicket-keeper batter Harvansh Singh Pangalia, hailing from Gandhidham, a town in Gujarat’s Rann of Kutch, has scored 103 not out from 52 deliveries on Tuesday against England U-19. Walking to bat with a team a bit of pickle in 251/7 in the 36th over, Harvansh, along with RS Ambrish, stitched a 126-run partnership together. While he was maintaining a decent tempo, Harvansh in the final three overs of the innings did pull of a stunning assault against the English bowlers.
Who is Harvansh Singh Pangalia?
In 2017, when Damandeep Singh, father of Harvansh and truck driver in Brampton, decided to move to Toronto—which is home to his elder brother and sister—he wanted to shift the entire family from Gandhidham in Saurashtra. With Harvansh making promising strides in age-group cricket, Canada was suggested as an ideal place to pursue cricket.
“Since my entire family lives there, I wanted all of us to live together and be united. But Harvansh was adamant. He wanted to represent only India. He was telling me, I will fight it out here. If I’ve to play among the best, then it might as well happen here,” Damandeep recalls to The Indian Express.
Damandeep didn’t have second thoughts. “If I had put my foot down and insisted that he came along, he would have. But he had a dream and it was his first dream and as a father, I didn’t have it in me to shatter it,” Damandeep says. Having let his son chase his dream, Damandeep has to cope with the constant shuttling between India and Canada, where he drives trucks in Brampton. “Puthar wants me to be there because he feels that when I’m around, he will get more confidence. So I mostly come here when the season begins. Since it involves a lot of money, I have to work hard on the days I’m working. So when I’m in Toronto, I mostly don’t take off days and work for 15-16 hours,” he says.