Kerala’s medium-pacer Eden Apple Tom picked up three wickets while bowling economically on the second day of the Ranji Trophy final against Vidarbha played at their home ground.
One would be intrigued with his name; still, by the end of the second day of the iconic clash, Eden ensured that the audience would carry on the discussion on his bowling.
After having felt good about getting the crucial wicket of Karun Nair on Day 1, Kerala were relentless on Day 2 in the first session, with their pace trio of MD Nidheesh, Eden, and NM Basil looked outstanding.
“My name is Eden. And my father’s name is Apple,” the State newspaper quoted the lad.
The boy was born around July 2005 in Pathanamthitta, the southern Kerala town, before shifting briefly to Dubai because his father secured a job at the airport.
“Former Kerala all-rounder Sony Cheruvathoor, who had one of the academies in Dubai where Eden started his training about 2015-16, suggested that the family return to India for the boy’s better growth in cricket,” said a report.
“I remember a young boy at the academy in Dubai. He might have been 8 or 9. He was fast for his age and had this desire to learn. I could see true potential in him, and when I returned to Thiruvananthapuram, I suggested he shifted back,” Cheruvathoor told The Indian Express.
The report further states that young Eden had to switch his footing while bowling which created stress on his lower back and knees early on.
In the following six years, with coaching from Cheruvathoor and the other coaches at the Love All Sports Academy in Thiruvananthapuram, Eden developed into a bowler good enough to catch the eye of the then-Kerala coach and former India pacer Tinu Yohannan, who was impressed by him.
Eden made his debut for first-class conditions for Kerala against Meghalaya during the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy, where he became a key man, taking six wickets.
“He was always brilliant with the in-swing that he got at a young age. But he wanted the out-swing too, and he worked so hard to develop it,” Cheruvathoor recollected.
But a stress injury on the lower back set him back further. Luckily, he not only survived that alarming blow to his career but got back into the fray without losing much of his pace.
On Thursday, perhaps the milestone breakthroughs came for Kerala as Eden had Vidarbha’s red-hot form batter Yash Rathod caught at slips for just three runs.
Without a lot of pace, Eden got the delivery over enough because it could catch at the shoulder of the bat, which lodged in Rohan Kunnummal’s hands at first slip.
The gutsy resistance of Vidarbha captain Akshay Wadkar (23) did not last long, his bat getting an edge off that ball of Eden pitched outside off, and knocked down by wicketkeeper Mohammed Azharuddeen.
