Akash Deep was in Pune earlier this year, assisting his severely ill brother-in-law to recover. Moreover, during IPL, Akash spent sleepless nights in Lucknow, monitoring the hospital where his older sister, who is now well-known around the world, was being treated for cancer.

As though grief were determined to follow a man who had lost his father and brother over the course of six months. In a moment of desperation, Akash once asked former Bengal captain Saurasish Lahiri if there would ever be a silver lining, according to Lahiri. "I simply informed him that God places the burden of such responsibility on those who are capable of bearing it," Lahiri explained.

Akash persevered. This is a guy who didn't bowl full-time with a leather ball until he was 20 years old, and who started his first season of organized cricket at a second-division club without pay. It requires a rare amount of fortitude to beat those odds by making a first-class debut at 23, a Test debut at 27, and a first 10-wicket haul in a little over a year.

But since Akash goes about his business silently, one would never know that by looking at him. "Akash is like a sponge. He will keep an eye on everything, make mental notes, and carry out his duties in silence. Lahiri, a former Bengal off-spinner who first tested Akash as an under-23 bowler in 2017–18, said, "He is not someone who can be swayed by one good performance."

Up to that point, Bengal cricket had seen Akash's tale. Hundreds of young players from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, many of whom, like Akash, are accustomed to playing tennis ball cricket in the Durgapur-Asansol coal belt, arrive in Kolkata annually.

Akash, however, has speed. Lahiri describes the speed as daunting. At the Rangers Ground here, it was first spotted by Joydeep Mukherjee, who was then the director of the Bengal Ranji squad. Mukherjee saw the wicketkeeper positioned 35 yards behind the stumps during a second division Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) league match as a result of a wiry fast bowler, as opposed to the normal 10. Lahiri was summoned by Mukherjee, who then brought Akash to the CAB indoor nets for trials.

Lahiri remembers that "he had no idea what indoors was, how a hard surface is different from a natural surface. He was just keen on bowling quick." In fact, he was making hitters shake. I had to put a stop to him. However, choosing Akash wasn't simple. With selectors wanting to see Akash bowl and pre-season approaching, Lahiri found it challenging to keep Akash in the game since a back niggle prevented him from bowling in games. However, Lahiri petitioned Sourav Ganguly and Avishek Dalmiya because he was certain of Akash's ability. Akash was permitted to live in a dorm room and underwent a month of rehabilitation.

Ranadeb Bose, a former pacer for Bengal, began the process of gradually preparing Akash for the game by concentrating on the fundamentals, such as grip and release. Lahiri attempted to postpone his debut for as long as he could until Akash was granted a game against Mumbai, where he produced a lightning-fast 58 runs and grabbed five wickets.

That match served as the beginning of his adventure. By that point, Mohammed Shami was always representing India, so Bengal was searching for a pacer. With his remarkable resemblance to Shami, Akash was a perfect fit for his capacity to draw movement from even lifeless deliveries. The Birmingham pitch at Edgbaston, which was also one of those strips, was ordered by England for the second Test. On 158 in the first innings, Harry Brook was taken by Akash's ball.

The ball slipped past the defense and took the top of off-stump as Brook attempted to play it coming forward on a length and seaming back. Brook was given out leg-before after being struck on the back leg, just above the pad, by a comparable but somewhat slower delivery in the second innings. The excruciating strike left Brook limping and confused. "There's nothing you can do about that," skipper Ben Stokes said about the dismissal afterward.

As you would expect from Akash, the ball moved in an exaggerated manner both times. However, the magic ball that hit Joe Root, which was bowled in from wide of the crease, straightened and crashed into off-stump.

Akash always delivered flawlessly. However, it required some persuasion and time to perfect this variation. Former Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary remembers advising Akash during his Test debut in Ranchi last year that his in-swinging delivery might make him predictable. "Which is why I asked him to work on the outswing." For a hitter who expects the ball to come at him, the ball holding its line is variation enough, even if it's not an outswing. He could plan the batters out when he began to get that perfect.

This is precisely what Akash is now capable of, according to Lahiri. The last hour of Day 4, during which England was completely reliant on Root to get them through, was then marked by Akash's killing of those hopes, ultimately ending with 10/187 for the game.

“He was so far out of the crease to Root that time that he had no other option than to hit it to the onside. It's nothing short of magic to make the ball leave him and hit the off stump, Lahiri claims.

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