The diminutive Nitya Pandya doesn’t look intimidating by any means. Even in this India Under-19 side, he can easily slip under the radar in front of other tall boys. But with the bat in hand, Pandya is hard to miss. Every now and then, he will charge at the bowlers. Other times, he will be engaged in a war of words with the slip cordon. If they don’t respond, he will have a word with any fielder positioned near him. The communication line with the bowler is always open.
On Monday, batting on 94 in India’s second Youth Test against Australia, there was a brief moment when Pandya went quiet. Australia’s fielders got into the act, with the fielder at deep square-leg even shouting, “go for it Pandya!” as left-arm seamer Harry Hoekstra hurled a few short stuff. And off the next ball, Pandya would fall to the trap with Lachlan Ranaldo taking the catch at deep square-leg.
“When he is talking, it usually means he is dictating the game,” Digvijay Rathva, who has been coaching Pandya since he was 13, tells The Indian Express. “He usually doesn’t take pressure, but last match he was totally nervous. And today, he told me that he played a ball that was over his shoulder and was never in control. It means, he was feeling the pressure of reaching a century,” Rathva adds.
Very early, apart from his obvious liking to bat for long periods, Rathva says he was impressed more about how Pandya made Virat Kohli his idol and began to follow him to the T.
“All this talking and sledging, he picked it by watching Kohli. When he takes the field, he wants to be like Kohli… sunglasses, collars up, fielding and even celebrating a wicket, you will see him imitate Kohli wherever possible. If Kohli does something, Pandya would do the same on the field next day. If he isn’t doing anything it only means, his mind is elsewhere or he is feeling a bit of pressure,” Rathva says.
Last year Raj Lambani, who was part of India’s U-19 World Cup team in 2024 and a close friend of Pandya, came to play a club match. “Pandya loves to talk and nobody can hold him back,” Rathva recalls, “Raj had the new ball on a green top and Pandya went, ‘Don’t try to show me that you are India U-19 player. I’m going to smash you now’ and ended up hitting two fours in the first over”.
Since Pandya is already 18, he won’t be eligible to make the Under-19 World Cup cut and this Test could well be his last in the age-group category. But waiting patiently for an opportunity and just getting one or two games isn’t new for Pandya. Born in Banswara district in Rajasthan, Pandya moved with his mother and sister to Vadodara only to pursue cricket.
“I’d no choice to send them to Vadodara because I couldn’t see Nitya suffering here in our village Anjana,” Pandya’s father Jitendra says. “He used to finish school and travel 50km by bus from our village Anjana to Banswara for coaching. He would take the 2PM bus and return only by 10PM. It was the time when Hardik and Krunal Pandya had become part of the IPL. So we thought, why not Vadodara?” he recalls.
At Vadodara, Pandya enrolled at Motibaug Cricket Academy with Rathva taking him under the wings. And since he had moved between states, the prevailing rule in Baroda Cricket Association meant that Pandya ended up losing three years. “Here, we had to overcome the red card issue. So all that he played was club cricket; despite being the most talented he couldn’t make the state team. But once he got the green card, he walked into the Under-16 team where he played for two years and then is now part of the U-19 team for two years. The Under-19 World Cup was the dream, but it isn’t the end,” Rathva says.
Having made an impressive 51 in India’s second innings of the first Youth Test, Rathva had given Pandya a target – to face a minimum of 100 deliveries. Batting at No 3, he managed to face 135 and scored 94, including 12 boundaries. “I set him a realistic goal because of the rains here, he hasn’t had any practice outdoors. He has mostly been batting indoors and for a kid, it isn’t an easy adjustment to make from astro-turf to natural pitch. He didn’t play any red-ball games, so I didn’t want to be harsh with him,” Rathva says. A hundred was missed but proper good impression was made.
Brief scores: India U-19 316/5 (Nitya Pandya 94, KP Karthikeya 71, Nikhil Kumar 61, Soham Patwardhan 61 n.o) vs Australia U-19.
