When news broke that Kartik Tyagi, all of 19, would make his debut against the defending champions Mumbai Indians in IPL 2020, a small village called Hapur in Uttar Pradesh would have errupted in raptures.

Tyagi emerged from a tough circumstances to earn himself a spot in the Rajasthan Royals side, alongside international superstars like Steve Smith and Jos Buttler. This after sending waves across the cricket world with his performances at the ICC Under 19 World Cup in South Africa early in 2020.

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It’s been a breakthrough year for the young pacer, who will now look to make the most of the opportunity to take the next step in his progression as a cricketer. We look at his journey so far, and what he brings to the table.

Tough beginnings for Kartik Tyagi

Tyagi emerges from a farming family in Uttar Pradesh. At the U19 World Cup earlier this year, Tyagi spoke of his father’s determination to ensure his son became anything but a farmer. And so, despite difficult economic circumstances, Tyagi’s family decided to help him to pursue a career in cricket, much to the taunts from the rest of the village.

“When we all decided that I should pursue cricket as a career, people laughed at us,” Tyagi told ESPNcricinfo in January. “But my father said, ‘It doesn’t matter what people say, and it doesn’t matter to me if you’re successful or not; what matters is you enjoy doing whatever you’re doing’. He never let me enter farming and told me to only focus on cricket.”

An early first-class debut

Tuesday’s @Nissan Play of the Day was this brilliant yorker from Kartik Tyagi 👌 #U19CWC | #FutureStars pic.twitter.com/CMIabyQKRE

— ICC (@ICC) January 29, 2020

Tyagi ended up joining a cricket academy in Meerut – a city where two other notable India pacers, Praveen Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, hail from – and impressed enough in age-group cricket to make his first-class debut at the age of just 16.

It was a decent debut. Tyagi lined up alongside Suresh Raina and Praveen, and took three wickets in all. His Uttar Pradesh side fell 21 runs short of their target, but in Tyagi, Uttar Pradesh had found a fine prospect. However, fate would have other plans for him.

Injury troubles

Tyagi wasn’t able to build on that first-class debut. An injury and recuperation from it dragged on for two years, hindering his progress. He had also, rather hopefully, enlisted his name in the IPL auctions, but the injuries left him unable to build his portfolio and he was ignored.

The injuries took such a toll, Tyagi has revealed his parents, once he had recovered, even asked him not to give it his all in the field, for fear of it flaring up again. Despite that, he gave ensured he took his place in the India U19 side being prepped for the 2020 World Cup.

Kartik Tyagi impresses on the world stage

[caption id=”attachment_178286″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] Kartik Tyagi, who made his IPL debut against MI, was impressive for India at the U19 World Cup[/caption]

India had a lot of positives from a campaign in which they made it to the final. Tyagi was a big one, as he appeared head and shoulders above some of the other bowlers at the tournament, becoming the latest in a lengthening line of young pacers as India slowly becomes a fast-bowlers factory.

Tyagi took 11 wickets in six matches at the tournament, with four of those wickets coming in a quarter-final win against Australia, when he returned 4-24. It was a match in which India necessarily didn’t play well, but Tyagi’s passionate bowling gave them an edge.

The IPL comes calling for Kartik Tyagi

Having been ignored earlier, Tyagi finally sizzled at the IPL auction tables in 2019. There was much interest in him, with Kings XI Punjab and RR engaging in a bidding war to take his price from INR 20 lakh to INR 1.3 crore – his life, and his family’s, would change forever.

“I was half-nervous and half-anxious, but when I got bought by Royals, the first thing I did was call my father,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “But the call was short. All he said was, ‘We’ll talk later, there are lots of people at home’. People from the neighbourhood had picked up my father and carried him around the village. I heard later that they played drums around the village through the night.”

What to watch out for

T Y A G I
I
M
E pic.twitter.com/hKMXqEdWod

— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) October 6, 2020

Tyagi has that characteristic that is typical of great fast bowlers – passion. In the ill-tempered U19 World Cup final between India and Bangladesh, that passion very nearly crossed the line, but it clearly eggs him on. It accentuates his skills with the ball considerably too. He can swing it both ways and is extremely accurate. He runs full pelt in his run-up and usually bowls it from wide on the crease.

Kartik Tyagi – Quotable quote

“Tyagi has a run up like Brett Lee and delivers like Ishant Sharma” – RR teammate Ben Stokes.