Nachim’s quartet puts India in Super League

But can’t the boys take it easy since the coach would have nothing to complain today? Prasad says he has one grievance. ‘‘Pacer Abu Nachim should have got the Man of the Match for his 4/25 but they gave it to opener Cheteshwar Pujara who got 47 not out,’’ he says.

The former swing bowler hints at cricket’s obsession with batsmen. ‘‘Very rarely one sees a swing bowler taking four wickets in an ODI and that too in the sub-continent. And at the end of the day he goes back empty handed,’’ he says.

Prasad knows what he is saying as one recalls his own experience at the same venue. He was India’s pace spearhead at the Premadasa Stadium when Lanka scored 952 runs in the first Test of 1997 series. Prasad returned home empty handed after 25 fruitless overs.

Ask Nachim about the award and the puny pacer from Guwahati makes a face that is inscrutable. ‘‘Don’t know why everyone was telling me hard luck. My team has won and my teammate has won the award. I don’t know what the problem is,’’ he says.

Maybe, he is too young to understand the old bowler-batsman conflict, as he seems quite keen to talk about his past and that one fine day when his aunt took him to a cricket coaching camp.

‘‘There isn’t a sport I haven’t played. Volleyball, badminton, football, athletics I have got prizes in every sport. My aunt thought that I should concentrate on one sport and so she asked me to choose one. I opted for cricket and here I am,’’ he says. It’s tough to keep up with the 18-year-old as he oscillates from one topic to another. ‘‘By the way did I tell you I was even good at marbles?’’ he adds as an afterthought.

One should have guessed, from his straight hit from the fence to run out a Scotland batsman. The jump cuts don’t stop as Nachim now remembers the Man of the Match award. ‘‘By the way, Pujara offered to pass on the prize to me,’’ he says.

Questions don’t matter any longer, as one is flooded with a barrage of varied personal information. He talks about the long bowling discussions he has with his roommate and strike partner Yomahesh, his brother who is too young to start playing cricket, the important phone call home that he has to make every day, and how every time he hears the muezzin calls from the mosque next to the Premdasa Stadium he kisses the talisman he is wearing around his neck.

With lips sealed, one remembers the start of interview when Nachim asked ‘senior’ pro Piyush Chawla to stay back since he hasn’t given any interview. Adaptability seems one strong point of the youngster, and it is evident from the show on field too. A wicketless five-over first spell against Namibia was followed by two scalps in the second.

Today he took four, but both coach and his protege know that from now onwards the high fives will be tough to get.