Fast forward: Against all odds, Sakariya gets his stage

The bus journey from the training facility to the hotel in Surat, on Thursday (February 18) evening, was a long one for Chetan Sakariya. Much like all his Saurashtra teammates, who are prepping for the Vijay Hazare Trophy, he too was glued to his mobile phone, following the IPL Auction when his name was announced. "I was expecting to get picked, but not for such a high price," he tells Cricbuzz after Rajasthan Royals signed him for INR 1.2 Crore, the second-highest for an uncapped Indian IPL player in the 2021 edition.

Sakariya's IPL contract evoked much joy in his teammates, many of whom have witnessed his journey from close quarters. Jaydev Unadkat wrote on Twitter, "No one deserved it more! Happiest for you, Cheetah!". Sheldon Jackson added: "The satisfaction of watching him get picked was something different".

It was only a month ago, while playing the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Indore, that he received the news of his brother's demise, who had died by suicide in Bhavnagar, Gujarat. The news though wasn't broken to Sakariya while he was playing. Unaware of the situation back home, he put up standout performances for Saurashtra and finished as the tournament's sixth-highest wicket-taker, conceding runs at a frugal rate of 4.9 per over. He was called in for trials by Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals, with the latter following through with a winning bid at the auction.

It has been a quick rise to reach the cream of IPL cricket for the 22-year-old left-arm pacer, but one that has needed him to tear through financial challenges. A son of a tempo driver, making ends meet was hard for the Sakariya family. When his idol Yuvraj Singh was putting in a tournament-winning performance at the 2011 World Cup for India, he didn't even have a television set at home. To play cricket, the financial challenges were manifold. In order to keep his cricketing dream alive, Sakariya worked at a bookstall on daily wages for two years in his late teens.

Even his cricketing disposition - that of being a fast bowler - ensured he wasn't a burden for the family back home. As much as Sakariya admired the likes of Zaheer Khan, Junaid Khan and Mitchell Starc, he started out as a left-handed batter before being urged by his coach in Bhavnagar, Rajendra Goyal, to focus on bowling pace.

"It helped that I was a bowler, the expenses were low," Sakariya says. "Till I was playing age-group cricket, I didn't have the money to buy boots with spikes, so my seniors would help me with it. And since I was batting lower down the order, I would borrow the bat from one of the top order batters." It was Sheldon Jackson, who had a contract with Nike, and the same shoe size, who would offer the extra pairs to Sakariya.

That Sakariya stood out among the battery of pacers in Saurashtra, by 2017, wasn't hard to comprehend for either Jackson or Shitanshu Kotak, who went on to become the state coach after having played for the team for nearly two decades with distinction. Regarded as one of the sharpest judges of talent in the region, Kotak soon drafted the left-arm pacer to the state team, even though he didn't get a game to play in his first season. He was also sent to the MRF Pace Foundation to train under Glenn McGrath for two years, and the result was a drastic maturity in his bowling.

"Currently, I don't think there is a better T20 bowler in Saurashtra. And there are quite a few heavyweights in the team with whom I'm comparing," Jackson says.

Sakariya isn't basking in the hype. He's in fact waiting for the big pay cheque to arrive for he plans on moving to Rajkot to give his family a 'better life'. "This money will help me out in a lot of ways," Sakariya says. "First thing I need to do is get a better house. I'm planning to move with my family to Rajkot to help my sister get a better quality of life."

For now though, he is prioritising the calls that he has to pick. "My relatives are calling me, my friends, the politicians in Bhavnagar and even the police station. I can't ignore any of them, they've all helped me in my journey."