When Francis Xavier Minz met MS Dhoni at the Ranchi airport some time ago, Dhoni had told him, "If no one picks him, we will."
They were talking about Francis' son, Robin. Dhoni was travelling, and Francis, a retired armyman, works at the Ranchi airport on the security team. Cut to December 19, 2023. As soon as Robin's name went up on the giant screen in Dubai, and was announced by the auctioneer, at a base price of INR 20 lakh, Chennai Super Kings raised their paddle. Mumbai Indians did too, and after Super Kings appeared to have got their man, Gujarat Titans waded in and took Robin home for INR 3.6 crore. The boy from Shimal village in Jharkhand's Gumla district had become the first Adivasi - indigenous Indian - to become an IPL player.
What happened after that is what happens when a relatively unknown cricketer makes a lot of money at an IPL auction. A media invasion. The same questions. The same answers. We joined the party, too, over the phone, and a voice choking with emotion said, "I am very happy. I will call you back after speaking to my parents."
This was immediately after Robin had become a part of IPL 2024. He has stayed away from his phone after that, to what extent is possible, and on the rare occasion he does pick up, his answers are limited to a simple yes or no. But he does say - or express, at any rate - that he is over the moon, excited, thrilled.
When he called his parents after the auction - Robin was, and is, away at a Jharkhand training camp - his parents couldn't talk. They were crying. Dad Francis told us that Robin's sister, Karishma, had turned the phone towards them and said, "Look, Robin, ma and baba are crying." "Don't cry, ma, everything will be all right now," Robin had said in reply. "It's a time to be happy."
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Let's rewind a bit further back. Francis, still an armyman at the time, was on a visit home and saw two-year-old Robin trying to whack pebbles with a cane. He fashioned a bat from a chunk of wood and got a ball from the market, and a cricketing dream started.
Not long after that, Francis was transferred to Ranchi, and the family made a home 15 kilometres away from the city in Namkum. The cricketing activities became more serious at school. It wasn't easy. Robin has two sisters, and it wasn't easy for Francis to afford his three children's education, forget buying expensive cricket equipment for his son. He needed to borrow money at times. At other times, something important to the family had to be sacrificed. What he could do for Robin's cricket, Francis did.
When we got through to his mother, Elis, she said, "We could never imagine that our son will achieve something like this. He has made us so happy. Once, a long time back, Robin had gone to play in Khunti [a district in Jharkhand], and did so well that reporters came to my home, and they put my picture in the papers the next day. I can't tell you how happy and proud that made me. I even called his father and told him, jokingly, that my picture had come in the papers but his hadn't. I think that incident conviced us that Robin would do well as a cricketer.
"When we first went to a sports-goods store to buy a bat and other gear for Robin, we thought we would get everything for Rs 2000. But the bat alone was Rs 5000! We didn't know what to do. The shopkeeper was also looking at us suspiciously, whether we would be able to pay or not. But we managed, we had to borrow some money but we managed."
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Robin's family members, and his neighbours confirm what we knew anyway - that he doesn't speak much. Apparently, his school had once called his parents over and asked them to "teach your son to talk", since he was so quiet. That hasn't changed, but his bat speaks very loudly - in local cricket circles, they talk of him as "Jharkhand's Chris Gayle", not even "Jharkhand's MS Dhoni".
We asked Saurabh Tiwary, the Jharkhand cricketer who played three ODIs for India and has been a part of many IPL squads over the years, about Robin, and he said, "It has always been evident to us that this boy will be the next big-hitter in Indian cricket. He has natural power. I have watched him from up close for a while and can tell you that he will go a long way, for sure."
Another senior Jharkhand team-mate, Ishank Jaggi, said, "I had commented on an Instagram video of Robin batting that he will be 'next big thing', and I am certain that that will be the case."
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Robin plays at Ranchi's Sonnet Cricket Club. His coaches there is Chanchal Bhattacharya, Dhoni's one-time coach, Asif Haque and SP Gautam. Dhoni turns up at Sonnet once in a way, and has interacted with Robin in the past, spending time with him, discussing everything to do with cricket, and the psychological aspect of the game. Ishan Kishan, another Jharkhand and India cricketer, once gifted Robin a pair of wicketkeeping gloves, which Robin still uses.
Once, some years ago, Bhattacharya was so impressed with Robin's game, that he went searching for Francis and Elis, looking for their house. Elis was at home. She didn't know Bhattacharya. The neighbours introduced him as Dhoni's coach.
"Chanchal sir came home one day," Elis recalls, "and I had no idea who he was, and my neighbours told me about him. Chanchal sir told me, 'Don't worry about Robin, he will be on TV soon'."
From Bhattacharya's point of view, Robin was "the next Dhoni".
"He had been playing with us at Sonnet for a couple of years," Bhattacharya said. "He was always a natural, aggressive hitter of the ball. He isn't Dhoni yet, but when Dhoni first came to me, we saw that even if he scored just 10 runs, he would hit a six. Robin is the same. They are identical in that respect. Robin is what we call a hard-hitter.
"I can say with confidence that, while he isn't Dhoni yet, he can be the next Dhoni. He hit three centuries in the zonal Under-19s a couple of years back. The Mumbai Indians scouts saw that, and had called him for their trials.
"He is a good player, of course, but what sets him apart is his nature. If I have admired a cricketer's nature, his conduct, after Dhoni, it is Robin. He is calm, he is polite, and he is eager to learn. If you talk to him about food, he talks a lot. His life is about cricket and food. If you take him out for a meal, Robin will order five different chicken dishes."
Robin, his family members, his coaches, his Jharkhand colleagues, will all be hoping he gets a chance to get in the playing XI at Titans, and do something that creates a splash. If and when he does, it will be a huge moment for his community, one that is not a part of the "mainstream", finds limited opportunities, and is even today struggling to assert itself in any meaningful way. But, Bhattacharya says, he might just lift the lid for many from his community.
"Robin might be the first from his community to make a name for himself in cricket, but there are many others waiting in the wings," Bhattacharya said. "You might see them making a name soon. There is a lot of talent here. It's just a matter of time."