Aditya Thakare

At the age of 14, Aditya Thakare was caught in a state of conundrum - to pursue his cricket career or to concentrate on academics. And eventually, he decided to concentrate on cricket, based on the advice from his coaches. Aditya started his career at the Ankola Cricket Club (ACC) and it was in a match against Madhya Pradesh XI that Aditya revealed his true potential and even made a strong case for him to be included in the state U-16 team. But by then, the Vidarbha team was already picked but on the insistence of Bharath Dakker - his coach and Vidarbha Cricket Association's convener for Akola district.

The six feet 2 inches tall pacer finished as the highest wicket-taker for Vidarbha and there was no looking back from there for the youngster. Topping the charts in the U-19 Cooch Behar Trophy after the league phase earned him a maiden call-up to the Vidarbha Ranji Trophy squad and was straightaway drafted into the playing XI where he displayed a fine bowling spell of fast bowling in the first innings where his accuracy and control was most talked about. Aditya ticked off another box when he was called up for the U-19 World Cup as a stand-by for Ishan Porel and with India clinching the trophy, it was like the icing on the cake for the youngster.