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Prashant Veer and Sameer Rizvi with Mohd Amaan in the middle. (Special arrangement)On most mornings last week, Prashant Veer and his Uttar Pradesh teammate Sameer Rizvi woke up in different cities than they were in the previous day. Often, without having enough time to register where they were, they had to head into another match.
Mumbai to Kolkata, back to Mumbai, back to Kolkata, then once more to Mumbai before returning to Kolkata – a blur of airports, taxis and hotel corridors stitched together by matches they were expected to perform in.
For 20-year-old Veer and 21-year-old Rizvi – also captain of the state under-23 team – it was a stress test. The merry-go-round started on November 25 at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, where UP played the home team in the U-23 State A Trophy quarter-final. Veer smashed 61 off 22 balls and took 4 for 75 to help eliminate Mumbai from the 50-over tournament.
The following morning, they were on the other side of India as UP began their Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 (SMAT) campaign at Jadavpur University ground in Kolkata. A different format, different conditions, and limited recovery window.
On November 28, playing against Jammu & Kashmir, Veer made 37 off 10 balls and took 3 for 20 to clinch a 109-run win and claim the Player of the Match award.
Prashant Veer in action. (Special arrangement)
Then came a four-day whiplash:
November 29 – Mumbai for the U-23 semi-final against Rajasthan
November 30 – Kolkata for another SMAT game against Madhya Pradesh
December 1 – Mumbai for the U-23 final against Tamil Nadu
December 2 – Kolkata for another SMAT fixture against Hyderabad
The duo took five flights – four on consecutive days – clocking 5,147.5 air miles between the two cities from November 25 to December 2. Veer, however, seemed ready for the task as he made 376 runs and took 18 wickets in the Under-23 competition to lead his side to the final.
“This week was challenging. It was not easy to travel every night and then play matches in the morning, especially the 50-over matches, which start at 9 am and end at 5 in the evening. We had to prepare for the match at 7 am,” he told The Indian Express.
“The intensity in T20 matches is high. The state team has high-class players like Rinku Singh. All of them supported me a lot. They urged me to run less on the field. They made me field in a safer part of the ground.”
If it takes a village to raise a child, it took an entire support system to keep him going. Veer leaned on two trainers – Israr Azeem Khan for the senior side and Yogesh for the under-23s – while the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association (UPCA) helped by arranging business class tickets.
“Our support staff from both teams, our physios, trainers, they supported us a lot, as did the UPCA. Generally, we get economy tickets, but this time we got business class tickets, and we could sleep and recover while travelling,” Veer adds.
The youngster, however, isn’t new to this grind. Before the Mumbai–Kolkata shuttle, he travelled for trials with Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians before linking up with the under-23 squad for the league phase of the inter-state tournament in Jaipur. Even then, alternating between T20s and 50-over matches made the latest stretch particularly exhausting.
“It was physically difficult. We slept for three to four hours and played for seven days. Then there was the travel. Mumbai’s traffic was very bad. It took two hours to reach our hotel. It wasn’t easy. Mentally, we didn’t have to prepare for the match. It was fine,” he says.
“The toughest aspect was travelling. The flight was two to three hours long. You had to reach the airport one to two hours early. We had kit bags and other luggage with us. You had to go to the hotel from the airport,” he adds.
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