Anshuman Hooda: From Engineer to Cricket Star

The question makes him laugh. Office laptop or cricket ball?

“My cricket ball is my best friend,” says Anshuman Hooda, and the answer comes without a pause.

It sounds like a line from a player who has grown up inside academies and age-group dressing rooms, chasing the same dream since childhood. His story is nothing like that.

This is the 25-year-old who topped the wicket charts in the third edition of the Delhi Premier League, taking 22 wickets and the Purple Cap while spearheading South Delhi Superstarz to the title. An engineer by profession. A national-level roller skater in his childhood. A late arrival to leather-ball cricket who twice failed to crack Under-23 trials and once decided he was done with the game.

He was supposed to be the guy who chose the job.

At home in Delhi, his mother, Prem Lata Singh, a primary school teacher with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, is finally relaxed about his choices. His elder brother, Vikram, explains why.

“Earlier, they used to say that he needed a job. Now that he has one and is doing well, she is happy,” Vikram says.

For years, the family conversation circled around security. Degree. Placement. Salary. That script changed when the Delhi Premier League handed Hooda a stage and a white ball. He did the rest.

“I tried for Under-23 for two years, but I couldn’t make it,” Anshuman recalls. “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.

“So at that time, I thought I should quit cricket and pursue my career in engineering or something.”

He meant it. He had graduated from Delhi Technological University (DTU) with a degree in Production and Industrial Engineering in 2023, landed a job at EY through campus placements, and was ready to move on.

That is when one person refused to let him walk away.

The coach who wouldn’t take no

In 2019, coach Harish Dagar noticed a tall, athletic student playing tennis-ball cricket at university. The action was raw. The control was loose. The pace was real.

“His body alignment was natural. His strength was natural, and his pace was natural. But he didn't have enough strength in his body initially. That's why I told him that if you don't maintain your fitness along with your natural pace, you will face problems,” Dagar says.

By 2023, with a degree in hand and a job offer secured, Anshuman was ready to close the cricket chapter. Dagar stepped in.

“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,” the coach remembers.

The academy was Delhi Cricket Hub in Paschim Vihar. The deal was simple. One year. Four days a week. Full commitment.

Dagar knew what he wanted to fix first.

“I worked on his mind 80-85 per cent. I made him mentally strong. I told him never to think that he was tired or burdened. Once I worked on his mindset and the roadmap was clear in front of him, he knew what he had to do. At one point he had to focus on fitness, at another he had to do his job, and then he had to come to me for his sessions.”

The boy who skated before he bowled

The most unusual part of Hooda’s journey is not that he is an engineer who bowls 140 kmph. It is that his first sporting identity had nothing to do with cricket.

Growing up, Anshuman was a national-level roller skater. Cricket was there in the background, thanks to his elder brother Vikram, but it did not define him.

There was a pattern at home. His brother took science. He took science. His brother studied engineering. He studied engineering. Cricket, though, refused to follow the same script.

“I just started playing in college, and that’s when I got into leather-ball cricket professionally, playing for the college team and all. That’s when I fell in love with bowling fast, getting wickets and the aggression that comes with it. I just loved bowling fast.”

That love had to fit around classes, projects and placements. Later, it had to fit around meetings and deadlines.

When cricket had to share space with a career

After DTU, Hooda joined a multinational company in 2023. Work-from-home helped. It also turned his days into a juggling act.

He would log off from one screen and rush to another life: nets, gym, recovery, more bowling. Fast bowling, as he learned quickly, is not kind to the body.

“Fast bowling is not a very comfortable activity for the body. You accelerate, then your whole body has to absorb the impact before you bowl. It definitely takes a toll on the body,” he says.

Dagar’s plan for him was not built around highlight reels. It was built around survival and repetition.

Periodisation. Rest. Strength work. Workload scheduling. Diet. Physiotherapy. Technical drills. A stock ball first, then the leg-cutter and off-cutter. Pace, yes, but pace with a base.

He had to understand his own body, manage niggles and still turn up at the academy after long days of work. It was exhausting. The motivation, though, stayed simple.

“It was just the love for the sport and the love for bowling fast that kept me motivated and helped me come back stronger every time,” he says.

The league that changed everything

The first crack in the wall came with the Delhi Premier League.

In 2024, South Delhi Superstarz brought him in. Opportunities were limited at first. He had to wait, then grab whatever overs came his way. One spell changed perceptions. The next season, the doors opened wider.

By the third edition of the DPL, Hooda was no longer a fringe quick. He was the spearhead. Twenty-two wickets later, he finished as the Purple Cap winner and a central figure in South Delhi Superstarz's title run.

He also had something else: attention.

IPL franchises began to look at him as a net bowler and a trial option. For a player who had no age-group pedigree, no Under-19 or Under-23 tag, the shift was dramatic.

The validation became real when team owner Shikhar Dhawan walked up to him.

“Shikhar Dhawan himself, the team owner, surprised me. He came and we had a little conversation. He gave me some very good tips and a direction to work towards from here,” Anshuman says.

Dhawan later praised him on Instagram. For Hooda, it meant more than a social media mention. It was a signal that his game belonged at a higher level.

Speed, and what must come with it

At around 140 kmph, Hooda has the one attribute that can fast-track a career. Raw pace.

He wants more.

“Definitely, speed is what I want. If I can, I will definitely look to bowl even faster and build the strength and skills to do that, while making sure there is no compromise on accuracy and line,” he says.

That last part matters. Pace catches the eye. Accuracy keeps a fast bowler in a team.

For Hooda, the next phase is not just about touching a bigger number on the speed gun. It is about holding that pace across long spells, especially in red-ball cricket.

“These are the things we prepare for. Who bowls in a four-day or five-day game and bowls long spells with the same effort? That is what I am preparing for. If I get an opportunity, I will definitely do that.”

His ambitions are not hidden. First, Delhi. Then first-class cricket. Then IPL. Then India.

“The eventual goal is to play and win matches for the country. That is my ultimate goal,” he says.

Job or cricket?

The numbers and the praise have brought him to a familiar crossroads.

On one side: an engineering degree, a job at a reputed company, a promotion before the DPL season. A life of predictability and progression.

On the other: a sport that offers no guarantees, only competition and the promise of a career that can vanish as quickly as it appears.

For now, he has gone back to work.

“Currently, I have joined back. But as I have seen some substantial progress in my cricket in recent months and in this tournament, I might, in the coming times, shift my whole focus to cricket and give it my all,” he says.

It is a loaded sentence from someone who once thought of quitting the sport altogether. The engineer who learned to balance competing demands may soon have to stop balancing and choose.

Anshuman already knows which way his heart leans.

“I will give it my all. Let’s see what happens ahead.”