Five years ago, Punjab cricketer Nikhil Chaudhary, after a long domestic season, took a flight to Australia to celebrate his birthday. It was early 2020, easily the worst time to travel. Within days of his landing, Covid deaths saw a global spike and Australia shut its entry and exit points. The only son of a Ludhiana builder was stuck thousands of miles away from home.
After a couple of months, the restrictions were lifted, internal travel resumed and Nikhil joined a local Brisbane club. He went on to play in the local league, informed his parents that he was staying back, and changed his visa type from “tourist” to “study” to eventually “sports”.
His decision not to call home for money took him to a place he had never been — a Mexican restaurant where he chopped onions when not waiting tables, on an Australia Post van delivering close to 250 packets a day and driving an Uber taxi. This wasn’t a life the boy in his early 20s, growing up in a comfortable home with two sisters and doting parents, was used to.
On Saturday, Nikhil, 29, became a first-class cricketer in his adopted country Australia — only the second Indian after Rusi Surti, the Test player who turned up for Queensland in 1972 towards the end of his career.
Nikhil was named in Tasmania’s playing XI for the Sheffield Shield game against Queensland. After an impressive performance in the Big Bash League and other domestic white-ball tournaments, the attacking batsman and leg-spinner was a step closer to representing Australia.
Speaking to The Indian Express, he talks about the life-size frame of Aussie legend David Boon in the Tasmania dressing room, the awe of walking on the turf that has been Ricky Ponting’s backyard and his inability to express his true feelings.
“Please understand, words will fail to describe what I am going through. You wouldn’t be able to understand either, only I know what all I had to go through. I think it’s just the fruit of all the struggles that I have been through for the last 5 years…,” says the all-rounder who, while playing for Punjab, shared the dressing room with Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Shubman Gill and Arshdeep Singh.
Cricket Tasmania High Performance General Manager Salliann Beams too spoke about Nikhil’s resilience. “His story is one of perseverance. Many players struggle to adapt after moving countries, but he kept pushing, kept scoring runs, and showed resilience… His experience in India and his hunger to prove himself make him a great asset to our squad,” says Beams.
A day before his debut, Nikhil recalled his struggles, mentioning the sweaty hours in kitchens, tears rolling down his cheeks chopping onions, rude customers encountered on delivery, and that one day in August 2023 when he was on the verge of throwing it all away.
That was when he poured his heart out to his local guardian, Billa Chacha — not his real uncle but his friend’s uncle at whose home he was locked up during the pandemic. “I share everything with him, he is closer to me than to his own nephew,” he says.
That was the time Nikhil played Brisbane’s very competitive T20 league that had games over the weekend. He remembers, it was a Friday and he had returned from his 6 am shift feeling terribly low. After a few hours, he had to leave for the game but was in no mood. After three years on the circuit, with his cricket career not going anywhere, he told Chacha: “Meri toh bas ho gayi hai (I’ve had enough)… I am quitting cricket. I will focus on my life, do some business here and try to get citizenship.” Chacha was non-committal, he didn’t drag the conversation.
Nikhil’s troubles that day didn’t seem to be ending. His team had an early collapse and the late-order batsman, dealing with the crisis in his life, had another fire to douse. “That day I scored 79 from 29 balls,” he said.
This wasn’t merely a match-winning and game-changing knock, it was a life-altering innings.
The next day, a Saturday, was a break and the final was on Sunday. So Nikhil got behind the wheel and switched on the Uber app. “While driving, I got a call from my manager. I thought I knew what he would say – ‘Well played, Nikki, well done. You got the team into the finals’ and everything… But he said ‘Nikki, we did it. Check your phone’…,” he said.
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Nikhil stopped his car and to his utter disbelief, saw a contract to play Australia’s premier T20 league, the Big Bash, for Hobart Hurricanes. “I stepped out of the car and took a very deep breath,” he says. Did he take the next Uber trip? Nikhil laughs and says, “Bro, I switched off Uber, actually deleted the app and said, ‘I will not run this again’.”
He called home, informed them about the big ‘Big Bash’ move and the family heaved a sigh of relief. Before that T20 windfall, Nikhil would often get a call from his mother, Manju, who would endlessly ask permission to send him money. Those conversations would be cut short. Living with other struggling migrants in Australia, the cricketer with dreams didn’t want to be different from those seeking a degree, permanent residency or one day owning a curry shop.
“I have never liked to be privileged. Everyone around me in Australia was struggling, they would do odd jobs while chasing their dreams. I too wanted to do the same. My father has done enough for us that I don’t need to work for the next 50 years, but I am doing what he did so he wasn’t against me doing things on my own,” says Nikhil.
His father Saneh, an engineer, moved from Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi for a better life. It was in the nation’s capital that Nikhil and his sisters were born. The family would shift base again, this time to Ludhiana, their present and permanent address. Nikhil was two then. “I did internationally what he did domestically. I think he knew how it feels when you go from one place to another and make it big there,” he says.
The Big Bash League would give Nikhil instant fame — overnight popularity in Australia, India and the wide world of short-video watchers. Last year, after a game in which he scooped Pakistan and Perth Scorchers pacer Haris Rauf for a six over point, his phone was flooded with messages. “I still haven’t answered many of the messages I got that day,” he says.
Having followed the Asia Cup intently, Nikhil has set his goals for this year’s Big Bash. “I want to hit Haris for a six and get Babar Azam out. That’s what I am manifesting,” he says, carrying cricket’s recent India vs Pakistan theme. A die-hard fan of cult Punjabi singer Karan Aujla, Nikhil says life on the Australian cricket circuit is great. “Yahan ke players, coaches, team bahut chill hai. As Karan Aujla says ‘mahaul poora wavy hai (the atmosphere is all wavy),’” says the man making waves in Australia.
How far is he from a Baggy Green? “Paaji, bas give me 18 months, you will be calling me again and we will again have a conversation.”
This weekend, Nikhil Chaudhary, 29, is expected to become a first-class cricketer in Australia, with Tasmania. (Special Arrangement/Instagram) 
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