'Used to feel the pressure every time I walked to bat' - Pranav Dhanawade's plight after record 1009-run knock

Sometimes numbers do tell you a story. 1009 off just 323 balls. No, these are not a full season’s tally of a batter, but the individual score of Pranav Dhanawade, during the HT Bhandari Cup inter-school tournament game while he was representing Arya Gurukul School. That knock created a frenzy of social media and catapult the then 15-year-old into an internet sensation.

He was soon the darling of media too, as lot of tabloids, TV and social media wanted Dhanawade to up their numbers. He was also compared to Sachin Tendulkar and all seemed to going pretty well for the teenager back then.

Sometimes, things don’t go as per your expectations, and Dhanawade felt the pressure when he failed to score anything substantial after his monumental knock of 1009 as the likes of Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw and Rishabh Pant quickly moved ahead and got into the national reckoning.

“The expectation was huge after I got to the record. Every time I walked out to bat, I used to feel the pressure and that on occasions got the better of me. It became difficult for me as I lost focus at times and played a loose shot,” Pranav Dhanawade said while speaking to Cricket Country.

Pranav Dhanawade failed to get going after his monumental knock

Although many people lauded Dhanawade’s effort, a few also criticized him for scoring runs against a weak team. The boys who faced the assault from the batter’s blade were all nine to ten years old as the regular players were away due to exams. Also, the boundaries were all short ones at the Wayale Nagar Ground ranging from 50-55 yards.

Dhanawade also was dropped 23 times by the fielders and the team’s strategy to bat and bat knowing the game was sealed when they got a handy first-innings lead was slammed by others.

Many questioned the Indian selectors why Dhanawade has not been picked in the Under-19 teams, A teams and the IPL. But the Mumbai batter’s failure after that knock didn’t help his cause. Even at the age level cricket, he got out many times cheaply due to constant pressure of wanting to score big each innings.