Life usually knocks us down multiple times only to help us rise to the top. The victories are sweeter that way. For Harpreet Brar, it was only a matter of time.
When Brar was close to 23, he had a couple of options. Either to join his father in the Police force or to leave Canada with a student Visa where his sister was staying. Brar had other ideas. He wanted to give cricket one more try, played for state’s under-23. He thought either an IPL contract or a selection in Punjab Senior Team would change his fortune.
It wasn’t his first try though. He was one of the stars in the Under-16 state tournament but then he couldn’t find himself a place in any of the age cricket tournaments for the state. He had to wait for more than six years just to get into the auction. He had gone for trials to Punjab four times and Mumbai for a couple of times. He returned empty-handed every single year but 2018-2019 was different.
When you are from a middle-class family, you don’t have many options. There is always the pressure of “settling down”. Society, relatives everyone would question you if you are not bringing enough money to support the family. Brar’s life was no different. In fact, it was worse as Brar wanted to be a cricketer and most of his cousins played the game and had to stop because of financial difficulties. You know how it goes, right?
‘”The whole world is trying. India has a lot of cricketers, it is not easy to crack”.
Yes, Brar had to go through the same type of crap. There were times he even used to avoid going to social gatherings because he had to meet “people”. However, those comments motivated him to achieve better, mainly to prove them wrong.
Of course, it was not like Brar didn’t have records to show the world. He was constantly thriving but he found it difficult to crack for some reasons. Despite all these, his parents did support him.
Mr Mohinder Singh was with the army for decades before coming back to the state. He was a driver with the police force. This means, Mr Mohinder was away most of the time and his mother would take care of the family.
Brar was young when he spotted a flyer that had an advertisement for cricket coaching. All his mother wanted him to do was to take up the game only he is going to play it with his whole heart. Brar did.
He began his coaching under Mr Sanjeev Sharma in Zirakpur. He was a batter initially but used to bowl spin a bit. When Sharma spotted his bowling, he thought that he could be a regular spinner and sent him to Punjab’s ex-Ranji spinner Bharti Vij at the latter’s academy in Sector 28, Chandigarh. It changed everything for him. Brar soon began to prioritize his bowling.
Soon, Brar made his debut in competitive cricket while playing for Ropar when he was around 15. He finished the first season with 12 wickets from four matches, in addition to some 250-odd runs. In the second season, he had 23 wickets. His 2010-11 inter-district performances earned him a place in the team’s Vijay Merchant Trophy squad.
His 2013 performances were outstanding as well. He had 33 wickets in the inter-district and 42 wickets from five matches in the Katoch Shield Trophy.
He made it even better in 2014 with 41 wickets in the Katoch Shield Trophy. In one of the matches, he ended up grabbing all ten wickets in an innings(second) after picking five wickets in the first. During one of his club cricket competition, he ended up scoring five sixes in an over, fell one short of the record owned by his idol Yuvraj Singh.
Despite his continuous performances, he couldn’t find his name in the state team. To add more, his team Ropar was relegated from the competition.
When things were going badly, he got a call from Gurkeerat Singh Mann out of nowhere and he asked him if he could play for Mohali. That call changed his life.
Brar took the offer and grabbed nine wickets from two matches. This helped him to break into the Under-23 team and he became a mainstay. In the CK Nayudu Trophy, he had 56 wickets from 11 matches with the best of 7/23. He finished in the 3rd spot. During that time, he was financially low. He couldn’t afford a proper bat and used to have them by threading it to make it stay longer. Mann then went on to gift him one. He had close to 300 runs in the tournament.
This performance made heads turn and this time, he got into IPL for Punjab and also had his List-A and T20 debut for his state. In 2019, he played a couple of IPL matches and in 2020, he played one. In all three matches, he ended up wicketless.
This year, he entered the tournament with excellent form after ending the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy with 7 wickets while going for just 5.70 runs per over.
Still, when he was picked in the team, he looked like the weakest link. Even Virat Kohli thought so, welcomed him with a massive six. However, Brar knew this was his biggest night and he had to grab the opportunity. Eventually, he did by removing Kohli, Maxwell and de Villiers. Maybe, he wanted to prove the world wrong once again, that he isn’t the weakest link.
