Abhishek’s message a confidence-booster for Sagar Virk

At 5 a.m., when most of Patiala was asleep, Sagar Virk was already on his way to the cricket ground.

Those early mornings, followed by a full day of cricket, have been part of the 17-year-old’s journey from a boy watching his elder brother Manveer Singh play to featuring for India under-19.

The road was not always smooth. Sagar was overlooked for Punjab in his first year of under-16 cricket and missed out again the following year. His coach, Himanshu Chawla, however, kept reminding him where the game could take him.

“My coach showed a lot of belief in me. He told me, ‘You can do it. U-19 is the main level. Once you start playing there, you can even go on to play for India’,” Sagar told The Hindu .