An eagle can spot its prey from over three kilometres away. The eagle-eye is the strongest known eye among all living things. It is nearly impossible to hide from its vision, as the eagle has the advantage of surveying large areas with the height it can fly at. Mumbai Indians have similar skills too. Raw talent, hidden within towns, cities or anywhere within the country is spotted by the MI camp and brought to the limelight. There have been several names that have made it big in cricket after starting off with us. Jasprit Bumrah, the Pandya brothers, Yuzvendra Chahal are some of them. The latest to join this bandwagon is Kulwant Khejroliya – a left-arm pacer. His story is perhaps the most fascinating to hear. Speaking to MITV, Kulwant narrated his story from obscurity to stardom. We take you through Kulwant’s journey to Mumbai Indians and the struggles he had to go through to live his dream.

Born in the Chrui Ajitgarh Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan, Kulwant Khejroliya is a genuine left-arm pacer who can bowl at searing pace. The most enthralling thing about Khejroliya’s rise is the fact that he started playing cricket, only about a year or so ago. “I started playing cricket around 11-12 months ago.” Making it to an IPL team in such a short time states volumes about Khejroliya’s raw talent.

When he took up cricket, Khejroliya was in Goa doing nothing remotely close to it, and he had to keep it from his parents that he was looking to make a professional career out of the sport. “I was a waiter at a restaurant in Goa. I didn’t tell my family that I was playing cricket.”

The speedster looked back at his childhood and recalls how he had a tough time with academics and the situation in his household was one where money was the need of the hour. “Studies were ongoing and I had appeared for few competitive exams growing up. However, I couldn’t get through anywhere. We needed money at home and my family wanted me to get a job. I was left with no option back then.”

After working for a few years, it took a friend’s advice to prompt Khejroliya to turn towards cricket as a career. “A friend of mine told me that I have the talent to make it as a cricketer.” Kulwant decided to give cricket a shot, but his family couldn’t know of the new endeavour. “I told my family that I am joining a friend’s transport business in Ahmedabad, but I went to Delhi instead, where I had a couple of friends. They helped me out with food and daily routine and asked me to continue working hard and pursue my career in cricket.”

As soon as he got to Delhi, he joined a small club before he could try getting into one of the bigger ones. “I initially wanted to get into Sonnet Cricket Club, where players like Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant and Ashish Nehra have played. However, I wanted to make a good first impression on Tarak Sir over there and knew I could get a good platform to showcase my talent from there. Hence, I decided to play for a small club first before going for trials there. I joined a lesser known club for 10-15 days, and then I felt that I could go for trials at Sonnet. After the trials, I impressed everyone at Sonnet, but over there we could practice for two days in a week, that is, seven to eight days in a month. I didn’t have the time to stay for that long.”

The turning point in making Khejroliya’s dream into a reality came when he joined the other prestigious LB Shastri Club in Delhi which has been the grassroots of a few national players. “In Delhi, I got a break at the LB Shastri Club, which has given rise to players like Gautam Gambhir, Nitish Rana and Unmukt Chand.”

Starting off at the club wasn’t easy though, but Kulwant got all the support from the coaches over there. “I went for trials to LB Shastri Club! I didn’t have proper shoes with spikes back then. I had took a pair of shoes for the trials from my friend’s place, but they were torn. I thought I’d see what comes out of this and went ahead for the trials. My coach, Mr. Sanjay Bharadwaj, asked me about my shoes and I told him my story, and I ran him through my situation at home too. He gave me a pair of shoes and got me into a hostel where a lot of other budding cricketers stay. I moved in and started working really hard. I would spend all day on the ground and switch to gymming in the evening”.

At the LB Shastri Club, Khejroliya learnt a lot more about cricket and formed a new bonding, a new family. “Gautam Gambhir liked me and told that I have some really good talent. He asked me to work hard and believed that I will play at some level. Unmukt Chand and Nitish Rana supported me as well. Whatever I am today is all because of Sanjay Bharadwaj. He treated me like his own son and gave me a lot of support.”

Khejroliya also had a family to support, back home. He had to send them money as he had told them that he is working in Ahmedabad. He managed to pull that off too. “My family believed that I was working and I had to send them money. In the first two-three months, I borrowed money from my friends and sent it home. I still didn’t tell them that I was playing cricket.”

The big call-up for Khejroliya came during the IPL auction in 2017. Mumbai Indians entrusted him and bought the quick. He had the belief that his hard work would pay off and took inspiration from previous picks by MI in the earlier auctions. “Mumbai Indians had picked up Nathu Singh in the previous IPL. I thought, if he can make it from a tiny village and from a struggling family, then even I can make it. I didn’t think I’d make it to an IPL team this soon though. I had worked really hard and it paid off.”

Kulwant played in a few tournaments before attempting to get into Mumbai Indians at a trial run by the team. “I played at the DY Patil Stadium in a corporate tournament and then went for the Mumbai Indians trials in Vadodara. From there on, I went to Delhi’s Ranji trophy camp and bowled in the nets. The coach spotted my talent and urged me to work harder, which I did. Eventually, Mumbai Indians got me and two days later I was selected for the Vijay Hazare squad. I performed well in the tournament.” Leading into the IPL, Khejroliya had made his ‘List A’ debut for Delhi and was impressive almost right away. He picked up 17 wickets in the seven games he played, and didn’t go wicket-less in any single game.

It’s been a while since Khejroliya has gone home, but he is in touch with his family who are considerably happy with where he has got himself to. “I haven’t gone home for over a year now, but I speak to my family on the phone. They have backed me and told me not to worry if I don’t get a game. They know that I have it in me to make it big in cricket and know that my struggles and hard work will pay off in the future. They are happy now!”

Khejroliya is happy that cricket happened to him, or else he would have been left with a lot to answer for and making ends meet would’ve continued to have been a battling affair. “If I hadn’t made something of my life, I would have had a lot to answer for. But, now that I’ve made it here, the people in my village and my district are all proud of me and are very happy.”

In a country where cricket is a huge sport and has a massive following, the competition to get into a team at any level is fierce. A player has to go step-by-step, right from school cricket, to club cricket, and then hope to play for the state side, before making it to the IPL or the national team. Khejroliya’s life didn’t have a short-cut. It was filled with many a struggle and he put himself through it day after day, but never gave up. His mantra to getting all the way from club cricket to the IPL lies in his hard work. The long yards he has put in over the last 12 months or so has gotten him where he is now. Kulwant couldn’t get a game for Mumbai Indians in 2017, but being part of a title-winning side will do wonders to his growing confidence. He got a chance to train with legends of the game like Lasith Malinga, Mitchell Johnson and established cricketers like Mitchell McClenaghan, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. Under the tutelage of Mahela Jayawardene, Shane Bond and under Rohit Sharma’s guidance, Kulwant has gained a lot of knowledge and will be eager to take the field during the domestic season that lies ahead.

Kulwant Khejroliya’s story gives another layer of belief to budding cricketers across India that they don’t have to emerge from or grow up in the big cities to get opportunities to play at the higher levels. All they have to do is back their talent, believe in themselves and work really hard. Khejroliya is in his mid-20s at the moment and has a lot of cricket in him. He will look to make a mark in the upcoming domestic season, later in the year and continue making a name for himself and his family back home. Dreams are meant to be chased and the fulfilment will take care of itself!