Pranav Dhanawade smashes world record, scores 1009

Pranav Dhanawade smashes records by scoring 1009 runs in a single innings

Pranav Dhanawade smashes records by scoring 1009 runs in a single innings

Who is Pranav Dhanawade?

Pranav Dhanawade, who made headlines on 5 January 2016 for scoring a whopping 1009 runs, is a budding cricketer from Mumbai. The 15-year-old teenager is the son of a Kalyan-based autorickshaw driver Prashant Dhanawade. Keen on breaking the records set by three other Mumbai boys viz: Prithvi Shaw (546 runs), Sarfaraz Khan (439 runs) and Armaan Jaffer (498 runs), golden child Pranav has become the first batsman in cricketing history to score more than a 1,000 runs (not out) from just 323 balls. He has broken the record held by the English schoolboy A.E.J. Collins for Clark’s House against North Town in Clifton College in 1899. Collins scored a total of 628 not out.

Pranav, a student of Class X, was representing his school (KC Gandhi School) in the Bhandari Cup – an Under 16 inter-school tournament recognised by the Mumbai Cricket Association. His innings included 59 sixes and 129 fours, at a strike rate of 312.38. Known to idolize former Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, Pranav will now have his education and cricket coaching expenses sponsored by the Maharashtra government. Pranav’s epic knock has rewritten history at the Union Cricket Academy Ground in Kalyan, Mumbai. In the words of Pranav’s school coach Harish Sharma, Dhanawade has always been a hard-hitter, but tends to throw his wicket away. On learning about Pranav potential, even his personal coach Sheikh went beyond his means to help the budding cricketer financially.

Dhanawade’s success was applauded by many cricket icons like Sachin Tendulkar and M.S. Dhoni. Ajinkya Rahane, too, congratulated Pranav. The Indian batting legend tweeted ‘Congrats #PranavDhanawade on being the first ever to score 1,000 runs in an innings. Well done and work hard. You need to scale new peaks!’ On geeting to know about Sachin’s tweet, the teenager blushed with happiness. When asked about Dhanawade’s innings at India’s pre-departure press conference in Mumbai, Dhoni said cricket is a serious business irrespective of where a particular individual (batsman/bowler) played i.e. the ground, tournament etc. In addition, Dhoni also emphasised the need to nurture and guide Pranav so that his potentials is realized to its fullest capacity. Rahane, too, urged Dhanawade to keep working hard. He even showcased his interest in playing with Dhanawade in the coming years. First Shaw, now Dhanawade; India is surely on its way to introduce more cricketing stars to the world.