Anshul Kamboj on Wednesday became the 318th player to represent India in Test cricket. India had to call for a back-up after coping with multiple injury blows ahead of the fourth Test against England in Manchester. With three bowling options unavailable for selection in Manchester, Kamboj was handed his debut cap to aid the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj in the must-win game. Kamboj’s addition didn’t come as a surprise. The right-arm pacer hogged the limelight with his exceptional bowling against Kerala in the last Ranji Trophy season. He picked up 10 wickets in an innings. With the figures of 10/49, Kamboj became only the third bowler in Ranji Trophy history to achieve this feat. Even before that, Kamboj was making waves in the domestic circuit. In the 2023 Vijay Hazare Trophy, he took 17 wickets in 10 matches, helping Haryana win the title. That performance helped him bag an IPL contract the following year from Mumbai Indians. Interestingly, cricket wasn’t the game that he got into willfully. Since he was overweight in his childhood, his father, Udham Singh, put him in a cricket academy so that his son could shed some kilos. But there, Anshul found his calling. Speaking with Times Of India, Udham Singh said he never thought his son would play for the country someday. “It all started with me wanting him to lose some weight. I had specifically asked Satish Rana (Kamboj’s childhood coach) to make him bowl,” Udham Singh was quoted as saying. “He was overweight, and I just wanted to get him back in shape. I never thought he would end up playing for India. But the day I took him to the academy, he got hooked on the game, and it became his life,” he added. He was part of the India A squad that played against the England Lions ahead of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. In a pace attack that included Mukesh Kumar and Harshit Rana, Kamboj impressed with his seam bowling. But while Harshit was kept as injury cover for the first Test, Kamboj didn’t make the cut. Speaking to the publication, Kamboj’s coach, Satish Rana, said that he feared that his ward would be disappointed. But that wasn’t the case. “He came back, and the very next morning, he was at the academy. He had brought a few Duke’s balls with him and started bowling to a single stump,” Rana said. “I asked him, ‘All well?’. He politely replied, ‘Sir, I am hopeful.’ He stayed optimistic — and look at him now. This boy is a perfect example of hard work, dedication, and discipline,” the coach added.