NEW DELHI: Anshuman Hooda bursts into laughter when asked to choose between his office laptop and his cricket ball. "My cricket ball is my best friend," he tells TimesofIndia.com.
His elder brother, Vikram Hooda, says their mother, Prem Lata Singh, a primary class teacher at a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) school, is happy to see Anshuman pursue cricket, especially now that he has a stable job. "Earlier, they used to say that he needed a job. Now that he has one and is doing well, she is happy," Vikram says of their parents.
Anshuman had a breakout 2026 Delhi Premier League (DPL) season -- emerging as the Purple Cap winner with 22 scalps -- which played a crucial role in South Delhi Superstarz's **** le triumph.
But there was a time when Hooda thought cricket had run its course. Two attempts at the Under-23 trials had gone by without success. There was no age-group cricket on his résumé, no traditional pathway through Delhi's junior system and no obvious route into first-class cricket. He had an engineering degree from Delhi Technological University (DTU) and a job at EY. The sensible thing, he thought, was to move on.
"I tried for Under-23 for two years, but I couldn't make it. I thought it would be very difficult because I hadn't played any professional cricket or age-group cricket. It would have been very difficult to directly get selected for the Ranji Trophy or first-class cricket," Anshuman recollects.
"So at that time, I thought I should quit cricket and pursue my career in engineering or something."
But just when he thought of walking away from the game, his coach Harish Dagar, who runs a cricket academy named Delhi Cricket Hub in Delhi's Paschim Vihar, and trains youngsters at DTU, stepped up.
"It was in 2023. He had just graduated. He had got the job through campus placement and was ready to move on with his life. I pleaded with him to give it one more year. I asked him to come to my academy four days a week for a year, and if nothing would pan out, I would let him pursue his corporate job," reminisces Dagar.
Then came the Delhi Premier League (DPL). And with it came a completely different possibility. For a young man who had arrived late to leather-ball cricket, DPL became the stage on which his raw pace, athleticism and appetite for fast bowling could finally be seen. The numbers followed. The attention followed, and now Anshuman is finally ready to become a full-time cricketer.
"I have seen some substantial progress in my cricket in recent months and in this tournament. So in the coming times, I might shift my whole focus to cricket and give it my all," he says.
Anshuman is 25 and, in cricketing terminology, he can be called a late bloomer. But the most unusual thing about Anshuman's story is perhaps where it began. Not with a cricket academy. Not with a junior tournament. Not with a childhood obsession with bowling. With roller skates.
Growing up, Anshuman was a national-level roller skater. Cricket e
His elder brother, Vikram Hooda, says their mother, Prem Lata Singh, a primary class teacher at a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) school, is happy to see Anshuman pursue cricket, especially now that he has a stable job. "Earlier, they used to say that he needed a job. Now that he has one and is doing well, she is happy," Vikram says of their parents.
Anshuman had a breakout 2026 Delhi Premier League (DPL) season -- emerging as the Purple Cap winner with 22 scalps -- which played a crucial role in South Delhi Superstarz's **** le triumph.
But there was a time when Hooda thought cricket had run its course. Two attempts at the Under-23 trials had gone by without success. There was no age-group cricket on his résumé, no traditional pathway through Delhi's junior system and no obvious route into first-class cricket. He had an engineering degree from Delhi Technological University (DTU) and a job at EY. The sensible thing, he thought, was to move on.
"I tried for Under-23 for two years, but I couldn't make it. I thought it would be very difficult because I hadn't played any professional cricket or age-group cricket. It would have been very difficult to directly get selected for the Ranji Trophy or first-class cricket," Anshuman recollects.
"So at that time, I thought I should quit cricket and pursue my career in engineering or something."
But just when he thought of walking away from the game, his coach Harish Dagar, who runs a cricket academy named Delhi Cricket Hub in Delhi's Paschim Vihar, and trains youngsters at DTU, stepped up.
"It was in 2023. He had just graduated. He had got the job through campus placement and was ready to move on with his life. I pleaded with him to give it one more year. I asked him to come to my academy four days a week for a year, and if nothing would pan out, I would let him pursue his corporate job," reminisces Dagar.
Then came the Delhi Premier League (DPL). And with it came a completely different possibility. For a young man who had arrived late to leather-ball cricket, DPL became the stage on which his raw pace, athleticism and appetite for fast bowling could finally be seen. The numbers followed. The attention followed, and now Anshuman is finally ready to become a full-time cricketer.
"I have seen some substantial progress in my cricket in recent months and in this tournament. So in the coming times, I might shift my whole focus to cricket and give it my all," he says.
Anshuman is 25 and, in cricketing terminology, he can be called a late bloomer. But the most unusual thing about Anshuman's story is perhaps where it began. Not with a cricket academy. Not with a junior tournament. Not with a childhood obsession with bowling. With roller skates.
Growing up, Anshuman was a national-level roller skater. Cricket e
2 months ago
