Nagesh Gupta, Amanjot Kaur (l) and Nagesh Gupta, Kashvee Gautam (r). (Photo credit: Nagesh Gupta Instagram handle) NEW DELHI: Chandigarh has a rich history of manufacturing world-class all-rounders.Kapil Dev, the captain of the 1983 World Cup winning team, changed the trajectory of cricket in India. Then came Yuvraj Singh, who played a key role in India’s World Cup triumphs in 2007 (T20) and 2011 (ODI). In 2025, the city found its third in Amanjot Kaur, an integral member of the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side that lifted India’s first silverware in women’s cricket.Hailing from Chandigarh, coach Nagesh Gupta calls the ‘Haryana Hurricane’ his childhood hero and once had only one dream – to give India at least one true all-rounder. Instead, he delivered two world-class all-rounders in Amanjot Kaur and Kashvee Gautam. The latter has now earned a national invite for India’s tour of Australia in February-March.Just after the team was announced, a proud Nagesh Gupta shared a post on his Instagram with pictures of Kashvee and Amanjot with the caption, “Two all-rounders. One standard.”“Kapil Dev is like a hero to me. When we started watching cricket, there were only two names that even our parents talked about – Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar,” said Nagesh. TimesofIndia.com in an exclusive interview.Kashvee was selected for ODIs while Amanjot was selected for all three formats.
Planting the seed
Kashvee and Amanjot started training under Nagesh in 2016. “They both came to me within four to five days and were my first two students,” Nagesh said. While Amanjot was referred to Nagesh by his friend Deepinder Singh, Kashvee was referred by former Punjab Ranji Trophy player Sanjay Dhull.While both Kashvee and Amanjot started out as bowlers, coach Nagesh Gupta soon realized the significant role batting could play in their careers. “Over time, we realized that batting is very important. At that time, India didn’t have many all-rounders, so the perspective was to develop an all-round game that would help them in the long run. After that, we did a lot of work on both Amanjot and Kashvee’s bat,” he added.
Working behind the scenes
Amanjot and Kashvee have both been injury prone as fast bowling all-rounders put considerable strain on the body. Amanjot suffered a stress fracture in his back before the start of WPL 2025 and was again sidelined for two months due to a stutter before the World Cup.On the other hand, Kashvee suffered a knee injury during her debut ODI series in Sri Lanka last year and was sidelined for seven to eight months.After completing her rehabilitation at the BCCI Center of Excellence in Bengaluru, Kashvee met her coach Nagesh Gupta ahead of the Women’s Premier League 2026 season. During the ten days they trained together before the tournament, Nagesh ensured that Kashvee was ready for action.“I called her at a time other than the usual academy hours so that I could focus on her fully,” claimed Nagesh. “We started gradually, bowling with a short run-up and low intensity. As she got comfortable, the intensity and the number of overs increased. By the end she was playing four to six overs at full intensity, which is required in the WPL.”
Work on skills
While Amanjot batted in the top order, Kashvee was always a lower order batsman.T20 cricket is a reality of the modern age and while coach Nagesh Gupta has ensured that both his charges have improved their power hitting, he has not compromised on the basics.“When Kashvee and Amanjot started playing, women’s T20 cricket was not such a big thing. During the initial years, we worked to make both of them technically strong. Over time, Amanjot’s back foot game became very strong,” recalled Nagesh.Whenever there were shortcomings, coach Nagesh stood by his charges. “One season, Amanjot struggled to rotate the strike against the spinners. To overcome this, we developed her field of wickets, including sweeps.”The rise of T20 brought a new challenge that Nagesh faced. “Power hitting is very important in T20 because scores of 180 to 200 are often scored in women’s cricket. So we have worked hard on their power hitting. Both Kashvee and Amanjot do a lot of strength exercises whenever they train here.”
Hit the deck, hit it hard
Kashvee has always had a strong inswinger, which has been her supply with the new ball. Before, she just dropped the ball and let it do the work. Now it hits the deck hard, making it even more deadly. Five years ago, Kashvee created history by taking all 10 wickets against Arunachal Pradesh in the Women’s U-19 One-Day Trophy in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh. A deck shot requires the bowler to sharply bend the wrist in the final milliseconds before release to create backspin, causing the ball to slide off the surface. Nagesh worked closely with Kashvee to add this weapon to her bowling.“If you just drop the ball, the batsman gets more time to react and the ball is bowled more often, making it easier to hit boundaries. If you hit the pack hard, the batsman has less time to react,” explained Nagesh.Nagesh also plans to make changes to the bowling actions of Amanjot and Kashvee to reduce the risk of injury. “We’re planning to make some biomechanical changes, but we need at least a month to do that. They’re both staying busy due to tight schedules, but if we have time we’ll try to implement them.”Kashvee returned after missing most of the 2025-26 season with a knee injury. Amanjot became a World Cup winner on November 2 last year and etched her name in Indian cricket folklore by taking a turn-of-the-match catch to dismiss South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt in the ODI World Cup final in Navi Mumbai.Quality all-rounders remain one of the most sought after skills in Indian cricket and Nagesh’s protégés Amanjot Kaur and Kashvee Gautam could go the distance over the next decade.Nagesh is optimistic about their future. “Kapil Dev is a hero for them as well. If their career reaches even 60 to 70 percent of what Kapil has achieved, that would be great,” concluded Nagesh.
