Aakarshit Gomel- The Calm and Sturdy top order batsman from Mumbai

It was at the age of 9, the cricketing bug hit Gomel and he started practicing cricket rigorously. Getting trained under Pravin Amre sir, Aakarshit was fortunate enough to get all the basics of red ball cricket sorted from the guru himself who has shaped the careers of many first class as well as International cricketers in India. With the advent of T20 cricket rising since many years, the emphasis on red ball cricket has dwindled considerably. Aakarshit strongly believes that his batch of cricketers would probably be the last batch coming from “old school of traditional cricket” as more and more players are now focusing on white ball cricket.

Aakarshit who has been brought up in Mumbai studied at Don Bosco School, Matunga and his cricketing journey started right from the days when he was selected for Mumbai U13!

As VVS Laxman had famously said once to Harsha Bhogle in an interview- “You can see many players score a 25 or a 30 ball 50 but you would now hardly comes across players who have the technique, resilience and patience to face 50-60 odd deliveries to score 25-30 runs!”

Over the years, Aakarshit has developed himself to be a solid, indestructible top order batsman who can face 70-100 odd deliveries in a match without losing patience or getting restless. The matunga boy has peers like Shams Mulani, Aditya Tare, Siddhesh Lad & Suryakumar Yadav who all are known for their classical mould of batting. With players like Pandya, Pollard and Russell being the hot selling products today in cricket, fortunately Aakarshit falls into the list of classical old school of cricketers much like Pujara or Rahane who have a solid technique and know the importance of red ball cricket. The virtues of grinding it hard through playing years of red ball cricket (i.e the long format) in whites at local level is what makes a batsman shine and polish at the highest level!

The 25yr old has represented Mumbai team at U13, U15, U19 & U23 Levels with a career best score of 250 when he played for Mumbai U19 which was quite impressive back then. Aakarshit also plays currently for top division clubs like Shivaji Park Gymkhana and Parsee Gymkhana in various MCA Tournaments. When his father (a Central Govt employee) was transferred in Delhi in 2012-13, he also represented Delhi U19.  Aakarshit also received “MCA Junior Cricketer of the year awards” at the U16 and U19 Levels.

In 2009, Gomel participated in Zonal Cricket Academy Camp at Vadodara, he was the Captain of the ZCA U16 Team vs NCA at Bangalore. In 2010, he was called for NCA (National Cricket Academy) Review Camp. In 2012, he was close to representing India in Blues when he was in the probables for the India U19 World Cup Squad. His journey has been full of hardwork coupled with cherished landmarks. Aakarshit got a big stage opportunity in 2018 where he was amongst the top 5 run getters in T20 Mumbai’18 with 205 runs in 5 games playing for Sobo Supersonics Team. Aakarshit played for Aakash Tigers team in the 2^nd edition of T20 Mumbai’19 as a frontline opener.

Aakarshit  is thankful to his family for the constant support he receives to pursue cricket as a career. Let’s wish the youngster who was also in the Ranji Probables in 2017-18 a fruitful career ahead as a top order batsman!