Tushar Deshpande, the highest wicket-taker for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League 2023 currently, has proven his worth as a quality performer under the tutelage of captain MS Dhoni as the season has gone on. The 27-year-old fast bowler, who became the first-ever impact player in IPL history this year, comes from humble beginnings and stays humble with success, just like most other young cricketers in India.
The coach of Tushar Deshpande, Samanini talked about the tough times his protege had endured in the last few years, he said, “Tushar's mother died two years back. But he has inherited the fighting spirit and this is the reason that today he is at the top but his feet are firmly on the ground. Despite his success, he has not forgotten the words of his mother.”
Meanwhile, Uday Deshpande, the father of Tushar, recalled how his son didn’t shift his base to Mumbai and still ensured that he became a professional player in Maharashtra. He said, “One needs to toil hard to become a cricketer. I used to play cricket in my childhood but I had never thought that one day I would become a professional player.”
“But after Class X, he decided to make cricket his career. A player is needed to give five to six years to this game and he too had to give this much time to cricket. He used to toil hard at the cricket ground in Kalyan. He was a student of KC Vidyalay and even his school encouraged him. So there was no need to go to Mumbai and get admission in a school there,” remarked Uday Deshpande.
Moreover, during the pandemic, when everything in the world was closed down, Deshpande set up a gym on the playground in Kalyan with all his equipment to keep on training for what lay ahead. He had also asked his fellow cricketers to use the facility to improve their own game.
