Shaik Rasheed, at seven years old, was brought to a cricket summer camp in Uppal with about 300 other children twice his age. The trainers quickly contacted his father, Shaik Balisha Vali, and informed him of his son’s extraordinary batting prowess, convincing him to provide full-time tutoring.
“I did not realize he was that talented until this point, but I took him to practice every day and brought him home,” Balisha Vali told The Indian Express. Rasheed improved his batting technique under AG Prasad and went back to his birthplace of Guntur for trials, where he was instantly selected for both the U-16 Guntur Zilla team and the U-14 Andhra state team.
Soon, came a moment when the father worried if his young son was ready. It came when he was selected for an ACA academy, one of just 20 players picked. “Balisha Vali recalled consulting the head coach of the academy Krishna Rao as he was worried about his child’s welfare.
The coach Krishna Rao talks about the trait that impressed him most. “Just at the age of nine, he had a good ball sense. After watching the ball, one should know if he had to go on the backfoot or go on to the frontfoot, that is ball sense, and he had it in him,” Krishna Rao explains why he put a nine-year old Rasheed in the age group of U-14.
Rasheed was soon in charge of teams. According to Gaddam Venkata Sarath Babu, “he was also captain at all the state levels in age-group cricket.” “Andhra Cricket sent two players to the UK while MSK Prasad was the operations director. Sarath Babu remembers, “They picked up Revanth Reddy from Nellore and dispatched Rasheed with him. When he was eleven years old, he was transferred to Newcastle’s Durham Cricket Academy. His batting and life skills both improved during the three-month tour.
Sarat Babu discusses Rasheed’s special training. Rasheed typically plays on wickets that are not ready. These would be uneven wickets. He would practice for an hour every day on wickets like this one as well.
