Cricket-Teenager Samra swaps snowy Canada for Mumbai heat with IPL dream

By Suramya Kaushik

Bengaluru, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Yuvraj Samra honed his batting skills in indoor stadiums back home in snowy Canada and the gifted teenager is now ready to test himself in the heat of Mumbai as he chases an Indian Premier League deal after an impressive Twenty20 World Cup.

The 19-year-old became the youngest centurion in a T20 World Cup match last week when he made a scorching 110 off 65 balls, a knock that included 11 fours and six sixes, during his team's eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand.

While his World Cup adventure ended after Canada's exit, Samra is eager to get used to Indian conditions and has shifted base to Mumbai to train under India international Yashasvi Jaiswal's childhood coach Jwala Singh.

"I want to practise on turf wickets, especially on Mumbai wickets as it's not easy to bat on them. If I can bat well here, I can bat on any wickets," Samra told reporters, noting that he did not have similar opportunities back home.

"It's minus 20 degrees Celsius and it snows for like six months there. It's tough playing indoors all the time."

Samra, born in Ontario and named after India great and fellow left-hander Yuvraj Singh, is eager to impress scouts from the 10 teams in cricket's most lucrative franchise league and break new ground.

"I want to be in the IPL as its first Canadian and I want to play as much franchise cricket as I can around the world," Samra said.

While there is no shortage of elite T20 leagues around the world, players from the associate members of global governing body the International Cricket Council often struggle to secure deals.

The limited opportunities are not restricted to franchise cricket, with international matches against full members few and far between, affecting players' chances to compete.

"It's hard to compete against nations like New Zealand and South Africa because we play these teams once every two to four years," Samra said.

"If we play teams like these in smaller series throughout the year, I feel we can become a better team."