‘Run at McGrath first ball’: Taruwar Kohli’s first IPL innings, and what Shane Warne revealed about that night

Every April, young cricketers from small towns across India enter the world of IPL — five-star hotels, foreign coaches, franchise millions, parties they would have never imagined. This series tells their stories, in their words, of what that crossing feels like. Last year, when Taruwar Kohli started a YouTube channel, he didn’t think twice about the name. Find A Way. “That’s what Warne would say in the dressing room or the team meetings whenever the team or any player faced a tough phase. Find a way.” Kohli was nineteen when he joined Rajasthan Royals in 2008. He’d just scored three consecutive half-centuries in the U-19 World Cup. Ten days after India won that tournament, he and Ravindra Jadeja were drafted into Royals. “As a kid, I would often imitate Shane Warne’s action in the nets and in front of my parents. So when I was picked up by Rajasthan Royals, I had a conversation with Jadeja about getting a chance to play along with a legend like Warne. We had always seen him as a world-class spinner but not as a captain. We did not know how Shane Warne would turn up as a captain.”