Rex Singh From Manipur Becomes The First Cricketer To Be Selected In An India Team

Rex Rajkumar Singh, the 18-year-old left-arm pacer who made the cricketing fraternity sit up, took notice after attaining the rare feat of picking up all 10 wickets in an innings. He made this achievement during a Cooch Behar Under-19 Trophy match which is against Arunachal Pradesh in December 2018. The figures of Rex, 9.5-6-10-11, were simply astonishing but what also stood out was his capability to swing the ball into the batsman. For this quality, comparisons of him with veteran India pacer Irfan Pathan came up.  The teenager has definitely hit the correct notes in the early stages of his budding career. He is on his way of reaping the due rewards of hard work after becoming the first player from the state of Manipur to be selected in a representative Indian team. He was picked in Under-19 squad of India which is for the 4-day games against South Africa U-19 this month.

Rex is born in Sagolband Moirang Hanuba which is 3 km from Imphal. His journey to cricket started with a tennis ball in front of a small playground near his home. He said that he used to practice Taekwondo and play football in that playground but the interest never materialized. He realized his interest when Ph Rohendro Singh, who is currently his coach, noticed him for the first time. After that, he brought about the transition from tennis to leather-ball cricket.

The coach said that what caught his eye was that even as a 10-year-old he was bowling quick and maintained discipline. This prompted him to take Rex under my wings and today he is happy that Rex has excelled. The transition from tennis to leather was not very difficult for the teenager as he was handed a leather ball quite early in the journey of his budding career. Rex while recalling said that bowling at the age of 10-11 with a leather ball helped him a lot. Also, his coach guided him well on how to hold the ball and also told me the importance of the wrist position. It was not very long before the first notable performance of Rex came in his initial BCCI tournament which was in Ranchi in 2014. There he picked up a five-wicket haul against Bihar U-16 (Associate and Affiliated Tournament). Since then there was no looking back for him.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/rex-singh-manipur-india-u-19-first-cricketer-indian-cricket-team-5584603/