Sipu Jha
NEW DELHI: Chandigarh has had a rich history of producing world-class all-rounders.Kapil Dev, the captain of the 1983 World Cup-winning team, changed the trajectory of cricket in India. Then came Yuvraj Singh, who played a pivotal role in India’s World Cup triumphs in 2007 (T20) and 2011 (ODI). In 2025, the city found its third in Amanjot Kaur, an integral member of the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side that lifted India’s first piece of silverware in women’s cricket.Hailing from Chandigarh, coach Nagesh Gupta calls the ‘Haryana Hurricane’ his childhood hero and once had a single dream — to give India at least one genuine all-rounder. Instead, he has delivered two world-class all-rounders in Amanjot Kaur and Kashvee Gautam. The latter has now earned a national call-up for India’s tour of Australia in February-March.Just after the squad announcement, a proud Nagesh Gupta shared a post on his Instagram handle with pictures of Kashvee and Amanjot, captioned, “Two all-rounders. One standard.”“Kapil Dev is like a hero for me. When we started watching cricket, there were only two names that even our parents used to talk about – Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar,” Nagesh told TimesofIndia.com in an exclusive conversation.Kashvee has been picked for the ODIs, while Amanjot has been selected for all three formats.
Planting the seed
Kashvee and Amanjot started practising under Nagesh in 2016. “Both came to me within a space of four to five days and were my first two female students,” Nagesh said. While Amanjot was referred to Nagesh by his friend Deepinder Singh, Kashvee was referred to by former Punjab Ranji Trophy player Sanjay Dhull.While both Kashvee and Amanjot began as bowlers, coach Nagesh Gupta soon realised the significant role batting could play in their careers. “We realised over time that batting is very important. At that time, India did not have many all-rounders, so the perspective was to develop the all-round game that would help them in the long run. Thereafter, we did a lot of work on the batting of both Amanjot and Kashvee,” he added.
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