As the stars align, Porel shoots for the moon

Twenty-year old Abishek Porel has been a man to fill the blanks for Delhi Capitals. He was brought in as a replacement for Rishabh Pant after his horrific car crash. He continued in this season after being retained despite not setting the stage on fire with just 33 runs in four outings. The 2023 season had offered precious little into what Porel could bring to the table, besides being a back-up Indian wicket-keeping option.

What pushed his stocks further was the Impact Player rule, one that has been justifiably criticised for stunting the growth of Indian all-rounders. One of the few beneficiaries though from that rule in this season has been Porel who started off as one in just the second match of the season. Coming in at No. 9, with DC precariously poised at just 138/7, Porel had all of 17 balls left in the innings to make the impact that he had been summoned for. It needed him only 10, six off which were boundaries, as he smashed an unbeaten 32.

It's one of the two innings that Porel lists, in a chat with Cricbuzz, as his favorites in the season.'Kar sakte ho tum' (You can do this) they told him on the way out. Like onlookers, Porel too had been caught by surprise. "It was told to me suddenly that I was going in. I had been prepared that I might get a chance, but then they told me that I would not fit into the team's adjustments for a spot," reminisces Porel. "Then when the wickets started falling, I was told to pad up."

It was this knock that despite DC's loss, put Porel on the way up in DC's order. He's batted in five different middle-order positions and before settling in as their opener where he got his other favourite innings, and his most-recent one - 65 off 36 against Rajasthan Royals. "To get a fifty in such a big stage for the first time felt very special."

Before that, he had twice missed getting to the landmark - caught behind and stumped against the spinners on 42 and 36. A chat with Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly had then helped with getting the small things right.

"I used to step out to the spinners and get out stumped or caught behind. Before the Rajasthan match, I talked to both of them. They told me to wait for the loose balls, and not jump out at the spinners too early. The length is anyway short in T20s and that can be used. That was something I kept in mind and utilised in the Rajasthan game."

But these conversations aren't always technical. Porel's repeated takeway for instance from Ricky Ponting is about the confidence he infuses in him as a player. "Ricky siris very frank, like a friend. Even in the pre-season camp, he had told me that I was looking much better than last season. He keeps giving me confidence, telling me that I'm playing well, and that he would play me [in the match].

"Before every match he'll tell something like - 'You're the best, you're batting so well, you're looking in great touch."

It's not something that Porel might be short of. He makes no bones about wearing eye-catching colours for shirts, or dyeing his hair in blond streaks just because it feels good. There's a streak of rebelliousness in Porel that brought him into cricket even when his father prefered something like kabbadi. Porel and his brother are the only ones that took to cricket in the family. Abishek turned wicket-keeper by accident in an U-14 game when there was a shortage of players and had to give up dreams of becoming a fast bowler.

Those dreams now have taken the shape of becoming a 'Test Cricketer', thanks in no small measure to his Delhi Capitals captain's exploits Down Under.

"Jab Rishabh bhai ne Australia main jaake sau banaye, woh kuch kuch feelings aate hai ki 'haan ye waala mae cheez karoon toh kaise lagta', toh uske baad mujhe fascination aaya ki haan main red ball khelunga aur Test khelunga. Uska respect alag hai, kyunki Test har koi khel nahi paata hai. Kyunki ball swing hota hai, woh bahut technical hona chahiye tabhi aap jaake survive kar paaoge. (When Rishabh scored a hundred in Australia, I started thinking how it'd be to do something like that. That's when I got the fascination to become a Test player. The respect you get for that is something else. Because not everyone can play Tests, you've got to be technically strong to survive when the ball swings.)

The transitioning between formats, and balancing form across them has been a challenge for some cricketers before Porel. But he insists he's making sure that he prepares adequately for each.

"If I have a total of ten shots, I have to play only six in red-ball cricket to be able to get to a hundred because the ball will move around. Whereas, in T20s if I have ten shots, I'll have to play 12 to get a hundred. You need to keep doing something extra there," he believes.

"When you play red-ball cricket, you have to be patient to do well and in that time you get to read the game well too," he explains. "I'm able to judge calmly what shots I can play, analyze what's best to hit a boundary without risk. After playing that, coming here [to T20s] the focus helps. Shaanth rehta hai [You become calm].

It is knowing his game, Porel says that has helped him be a better T20 player as well. "I know what my game is. I play the same cut, cover drive, pull and flick in red-ball cricket as well. Those are the same shots I play here in T20s too. I know that I can't go in straightaway and play a reverse-sweep maybe. Surya bhai ki tarah pace bowler ko andar ghusske chakka nahi maar paaunga. Kyunki woh meri game nahi hai (I can't play the audacious shots like Suryakumar Yadav because that's not my game).

The know-how and mature head on young shoulders is perhaps another reason why Ponting does not shy away from offering huge praise for a player who is still earning his stripes.

"I've seen extreme growth in Abishek Porel. Looking back to the start of the last season after Rishabh Pant's accident, we needed to get some wicket-keepers into the squad after the auction. We tried a lot of guys, a lot of guys more senior than Porel. But the moment I laid eyes on him I knew that he was a very special talent. And I think what we've seen in a last half a dozen games in particular, that talent is starting to really shine through. He's starting to work out what IPL cricket is all about. He's had slightly different roles as well, he's got better and better every game. I've got huge raps on him," exuded Ponting.

"I think he's a very, very good young player. He's someone that I think has a really bright future."