Rishabh Pant gave tips on match-awareness and gifted me wicketkeeping gloves: Vansh Bedi

It took an annoyed mother’s desperation to get rid of frequent altercations her son would get involved with other kids in the neighbourhood that paved the way for Vansh Bedi to take up cricket seriously.

“I began my cricket journey at the age of seven, playing cricket in my colony like everyone does. I started facing lots of problems – like fights with others, ball getting lost or someone’s window getting broken. My mother got annoyed and said ‘let us make him play cricket professionally’,” said Bedi, whose blistering knocks of 96 and 47 were noticed in the recent Delhi Premier League (DPL). He also put up big scores in DDCA League.

Although he wasn’t among the top run-getters in the DPL, his innings caught everyone’s eye. The ease with which he hit sixes with timing stood out.

No wonder both Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians called him up for trials.

“The experience at the trials was good, learnt quite a few things. Appeared in MI trials only on Saturday (September 5). The cricket atmosphere is great there. Got to learn a lot of things. The coaches also helped me to learn a lot of things there and told me to play the way I did in DPL,” he said.

Bedi, who was inspired by his maternal uncle to play cricket, began as an off-spinner but then shifted to wicketkeeping at school.

“I started off as an off-spinner and gradually, when I started playing school cricket, I began playing as a wicketkeeper. I started my cricket journey at the Capital’s Dhaka Cricket Academy in 2013 under Pawan Chauhan. I then moved to club cricket under Shekhar Sharma in 2021. Since then, I have been playing club cricket,” he added.

“Coach Chauhan told me that you already bowl off-spin, now focus on batting too. I was in sixth standard and we needed a wicketkeeper for an inter-school match. I started wicketkeeping from there,” said the player who considers Brendon McCullum his role model.

“Brendon McCullum has been an inspiration for me right from the start. The way he used to bat and dominate the bowlers from the word go, inspired me. I am a big fan of Bazball.

“I had the habit of dominating bowlers right from the start. I used to like defensive cricket but did not really apply it. Everyone said that I connect bat with the ball well and I hit well, so I should continue doing it.”

Bedi, who hit a 150-plus score and a couple of 90s last season in DDCA League and totalled 548 runs in six DDCA Hot Weather games, got to brush shoulders with India wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant during the first DPL game where he kept wickets ahead of Pant, who didn’t play a game after that inaugural match.

“It was decided prior to the game that Rishabh bhaiya will keep wickets but after first innings, [coach] Vijay Dahiya sir told me that I would keep wickets, and Pant will field. After the match, Pant explained to me a lot of things and gifted me wicketkeeping gloves. He told me things like match-awareness, the role of a wicketkeeper in running the match. If the other team is batting well, how to slow down the match. How to show presence of mind as wicketkeeper and how to place fields.”

For video interview, click here

Tags : Vansh Bedi, Rishabh Pant, DDCA, Delhi cricket, India cricket, IPL, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals