With BOSM a week away and internship tests in full swing, Adit Shastri had a lot on his plate. It took a fair bit of cajoling to schedule an interview, but it only goes to show how devoted Adit is to his work.

Cricket in BOSM is played in the T-20 format. Matches are played in the afternoon, and scores can go up to 150 in a good batting innings. This year the BITS Pilani Cricket Team, with Adit as captain, has twenty-four players in its squad with six first year recruits–two of whom are in the Playing XI. Adit felt that despite the team’s lack of experience, their strong batting order will allow them to post a high total. ‘Overall, we have trained well and are in a good position to perform better than last year,’ he said.

The team practises every day from four to seven in the evening, and has practice matches on holidays. Since they do not have a professional coach, the responsibility of tutoring the recruits falls on the seniors. This, Adit said, helps the team bond and establish a good rapport with each other.

The team finds its major rivals in teams from IIT Delhi, SRM Delhi, and St. Xavier’s, Jaipur. Recalling the team’s poor performance in the last BOSM, Adit said, ‘BITS won gold in cricket during BOSM ’15 and BOSM ‘16, so it was a little disappointing when we got eliminated after our second match last year. With this year’s squad, we’re confident of performing much better.’ Last year’s disappointing run continued in outstation matches too, with the team losing in the quarterfinals of IIT Roorkee’s tournament and getting eliminated in the league stages at IIT Delhi. However, Adit was optimistic about the team’s chances this year.

Adit has been playing cricket since the sixth grade, has previously been captain of the Under-14 and Under-16 Nasik District cricket teams, and has attended the Under-16 State team camps. Having switched gears to academics after his tenth grade, he took up the sport again upon coming to college, and revealed that he had been selected for the team even before trials had begun.

As captain, his responsibilities include coordinating outstation tournaments with other captains and scheduling team practices. ‘Initially having seniors under my captaincy was a little intimidating, but I got used to it. It doesn’t affect my game anymore,’ he laughed.

When asked how he balances academics with sports, Adit replied, ‘It’s easy for me–I love playing, and I think it’s good to have a sport to play on campus. With internship tests and BOSM around the corner, there is definitely a much greater load on both sides, but right now it is critical that we perform well.’ 

As a parting message, Adit asked all BITSians for greater attendance at BOSM matches. ‘I know it’s a little far and we play in the afternoon, but if everyone showed up for matches it’d be really good for team morale.’