The captain of the opposition team, who was also the best hitter in the world at the time, went to great lengths to meet a 19-year-old on his first tour, whose interest in a five-Test series had waned by the third game because of a broken finger.

Welcome to the world of Haseeb Hameed, who maintains that his magical connection with Virat Kohli has improved it.

Hameed, who was given the moniker "Baby Boycott" because of his technical skill and became the first Lancastrian to open for his nation since Mike Atherton in 1989, came to his parents' homeland in 2016 with Alastair Cook's England team in the hopes of making a name for himself. After 31 and 82's attempts on a flatbed on their first appearance in Rajkot, they followed up with 13 and 25 in Visakhapatnam. After that, a determined Hameed was drawn to Mohali.

His tour was almost over after just ten overs of play. Umesh Yadav's spiteful snorter, delivered from a fair length off the tenth over's last ball, struck the right-hander on his left glove and sent Ajinkya Rahane at gully. An X-ray showed that Hameed's little finger was fractured, but that didn't stop him from walking out at No. 8 in the second innings, where he helped his team avoid an innings defeat and managed to hang on for almost three hours, scoring an undefeated 59. He gained the admiration of the cricket community even though it was unable to stop England from losing by eight wickets. And especially Kohli.

With his cricketing world falling apart all around him, Kohli's voluntary expression of sympathy, support, and empathy gave Hameed a lift at the conclusion of the Test. The connection has lasted over time and has helped Hameed through difficult situations, such as the loss of his Lancashire deal after the 2019 season, when he averaged just 9.44, and his exclusion from the England team after a terrible Ashes tour in 2021–22, when his last three Tests saw him score 6, 0, 0, 7, 6, and 9.

At the time, Hameed was just 24 years old and could have easily gone astray. He deserves praise for having transformed himself while at Nottinghamshire, where he is now in his sixth season, the last two of which he has served as captain. In Division 1 last season, he scored 1,091 county runs. In nine games this year, he has 848 runs at 70.66. More significantly, he has brought his team to within one point of the reigning champions, Surrey, who are in first place.

Kohli's motivational presence has been a tremendous driving force throughout Hameed's worst times, he tells Hindustan Times. In a late-night conversation while wearing casual clothes and looking like any other 28-year-old, Hameed says, "Virat has been really helpful." He has always been willing to give his time whenever I have had any kind of question regarding batting. Furthermore, it doesn't happen in a short amount of time. He's happy to stay for as long as we need him. I've always had a lot of respect for him. It speaks volumes about his personality, his humility, and the way he approaches situations in terms of what he has done for me as a person, as a player, and through my trying circumstances.

In reference to the South African legend, Hameed adds, "Hashim Amla has also been really helpful." "These are people I enjoy chatting batting with because they are not only fantastic players, but also have a good grasp of the game." Even though they are both amazing musicians, they manage to make their performance extremely relatable. It can be challenging to interact with someone who has achieved such great things at times, but they break it down to its most fundamental components.

Speaking about the Kohli connection, Hameed says, "On that first tour (in 2016), when I had my injury, he was kind enough to spare me a few moments." He gave me his phone number and invited me to contact him whenever I wanted. That only demonstrates how amazing he is. If you consider his social media following, he is likely the greatest star in the game, perhaps ever. He didn't have to be so eager to share his time and personal space. I was only 19 years old. However, the fact that he was so prepared and capable of doing it speaks volumes about his personality.

If you ask Hameed what the speed of Kohli's response to his demands is, he grins. “I’ll put it this way,” he says with a big smile, “he’s much better at responding than some other players, particularly for the caliber of person and player that he is. You might assume that he has a lot on his plate, right? It must require some effort for him to turn around and respond to someone like me. However, he has always been prepared to do so, and hopefully, he will continue to do so.

Karun Nair is another Indian who has motivated Hameed with his moving return journey. Over the winter, Hameed spent time in Bengaluru working on his hitting. "Being in Bangalore a little bit, I had a couple of conversations with a few people there around how he got dropped from the Karnataka side and had to move to Vidarbha," Hameed explains. "Since then, he's been incredibly successful." He has had a successful career in England, playing county cricket for Northants. Anyone can find it very motivating. On my first trip to Chennai, he was tremendously successful (303 not out), but he has since had his ups and downs.

"Everyone has their own path to wherever they are meant to be." Right now, he's batting at number three and playing in an India uniform, which is incredible. For him, the notion of never giving up and always having faith in one's dreams resonates.

Ideas that Hameed's Test debut at the age of 19 was premature are dismissed by him. With emotion, he declares, "I wouldn't change it for anything. When I initially signed professionally at the age of 17 or 18, I was always candid about my ambition to play for England whenever asked." That isn't very natural to say for some players in the 17–18 age range, but it was for me. There are some things you could imagine if only things had been different, looking back in hindsight. However, I usually don't consider things in that way. I take things as they are.

“By the time I had played my 10 test matches—seven of them away from home—and all of them against India and Australia, I was already 24 years old. I don't believe it could be much harder. In Australia, I believe I've had one extremely challenging and terrible experience in international cricket, but in the Ashes. As a result, it is amplified. However, the six Test matches before that were good, even though they were played in difficult circumstances and against India at home and away.

“What this current leadership (Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum) has shown is to select players even though they might have had a bad tour. Sometimes, you see the results of that.”

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