A sporting icon lets his inner Kamal Haasan spill out, a young pacer who made Bollywood endings believable and the soap opera where a mentor played the perfect captain and a captain attempted mentoring. It was that kind of a week.   

Sports writers love putting athletes on a weighing scale and speculating how the balance will tilt. It’s mildly blasphemous to rank champions’ records but we do try. Example: Who’s the greatest-ever Indian batsman? Is it Gavaskar, Tendulkar or Kohli? But then there are those rare delightful days when an ‘what-was-that’ television advertisement brings a smile. But soon, true to habit, the question sprouts: Is Neeraj Chopra the best acting talent among India’s sporting icons? Call it immediacy bias but Chopra’s Dasavatharam for a plastic money aggregator was a screamer.

Gaurav Bhatt spoke to the director famous for making Rahul Dravid pass off as a road-rage demon.  

Chopra’s mention brings to mind the nerveless Kartik Tyagi, who defended 4 runs in IPL’s most sensational heist of Season 14. Loose limbs, graceful stride and that give-it-all final thrust. Had Tyagi taken up javelin before cricket, the 140-plus pacer would have had 80 metres plus dreams. 

Sandip G dissects Tyagi’s trump card - his wide yorker.

Sriram Veera, meanwhile, got thinking when Virat Kohli was seen sharing valuable batting intelligence with a newbie from the rival team. That interestingly was a day after Team India’s designated mentor MS Dhoni had done his usual puppet show from behind the stumps and pulled CSK out from the brink.

Away from the Indian cricket’s wheel within wheels saga, the week saw the unfolding of a heart-warming story of a less-popular sport in mofussil India. Shivani Naik found out how a top gymnast trained during lockdown and Gaurav Bhatt traced a happy-sad day for a boxer who won a gold on the day he lost his mother. 

Imagine, this was just the first week of IPL and Olympians haven’t really hit the track after a limber-down post Tokyo. Next week, they all are expected to hit their strides.

That broadly sums up the week gone by. 

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Warm Regards,

National Sports Editor