Story of Ashok Sharma, IPL’s 154 kph pacer: A farmer, two cricketer sons, cash crunch, one drops out, other makes cricket ball fly

The pace was not coached. It was personal. A younger brother trying to hurt an older one in a corridor. The corridor led to a ground. The ground led to school cricket. School cricket led to a delivery clocked at 154.2 kmph for Gujarat Titans against Rajasthan Royals in Ahmedabad — the kind of speed that makes viewers look up from their phones.

Rampura is 80 kilometres from Jaipur. Nathulal Sharma farmed during the day and drove for the local newspaper at night, delivering papers to various stands. He earned Rs 10,000 a month. His wife wanted the boys to focus on academics and secure a government job. The usual route, the safe route, the one that doesn’t depend on talent surviving long enough to become a career.

Both sons wanted to play cricket. The family could not afford both. “He couldn’t have put his two sons’ future at stake,” Akshay says. “So he asked me to decide who will enrol in the academy.”

Akshay decided that Ashok should go. The older brother dropped out. The younger brother carried on.

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Nathulal enrolled Ashok at the Aravali Cricket Academy in Jaipur, run by former Rajasthan leg-spinner Vivek Yadav. The boy used to travel over an hour each way from the village. Eventually, he moved into the academy’s hostel to focus properly. Ashok made the Rajasthan Under-19 team in 2019.

Then the pandemic shut everything down. The lack of game time was one blow. The death of Yadav — due to stomach cancer, aggravated by Covid — was another. The coach who had first given the boy from Rampura a proper structure was gone.

Sometimes when there was no cricket, both brothers worked the family farm.

“He came a few months back and I took him to the farm where we were seeding wheat,” Akshay says. “I do cricket coaching and also look after my farm.”

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Growing up

When Ashok began playing Under-19 cricket, he came home and asked his father to stop driving at night. Nathulal did. The boy whose corridor bowling once brought complaints to his father was now earning enough for his father to rest.

Kolkata Knight Riders picked Ashok in 2022. The village got talking. It was a fluke, they said. When Rajasthan Royals released him the following year, the village spoke again – nothing will come of this one.

The village didn’t know what the snub did to him.

“He took the release from RR seriously and was eager to perform,” Akshay says. “The best thing that happened was that he got Ashish Nehra as a coach. Being a bowler himself, he understands a bowler’s mindset.”

And then the line that tells you everything about Ashok Sharma:

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“He is like a computer. You just need to give him the command where to bowl and he will keep hitting that area.”

A computer that runs at 154.2 kmph

Akshay knows what speed can do and what it cannot. He knows that India falls in love with raw pace every IPL season — a new name, a new number on the speed gun, a new highlight reel. He knows most of those names disappear by the next auction. 150kmph has been breached by Mayank Yadav and Umraan Malik – what happens after that is the point.

He spoke to Ashok recently. The advice was specific.

“I told him that people are talking about you because you are doing well. So keep your head down and continue the hard work. The destination is far. We have seen those times when nobody noticed us, people ignored us, and now they are connecting with us. But I don’t want my brother to be a one-season wonder boy. He will have to work harder to get that blue jersey.”

The blue jersey. The Indian team. The destination that is still far away. Akshay says it without drama. A brother who gave up his own cricketing dream so this one could play — he has earned the right to say where the destination is and how far it remains.

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In Rampura, Nathulal no longer drives at night. Ashok no longer bowls in the corridor. The wheat field is still there. The murmurs from the neighbours have gone quiet. The destination is still far away. But the corridor led somewhere.

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