“I knew it was going to be a lot of work,” said Rohan Deshmukh, an eighth-grader on the Voyagers team, “but it was worth it.”

Rohan is a cricket player who is bound for an international cricket tournament in England this summer. However, he was not always putting up the numbers he has this past season.

“I was really bad at soccer and my dad was like, hey I’m gonna sign you up for cricket and if you like it you can keep going, and that was seven years ago,” said Rohan.

Rohan’s dedication to the sport was not always enough to make him a successful cricket player. He had significantly below-average scores in his previous season.

“Last year I wildly underperformed, and I couldn’t get good scores on the board, but this year I’m starting to come back and I’ve put some good scores on the board,” said Rohan.

His scores began to rapidly increase in the 2023 season with massive improvements in his hitting average.

“In the off-season, I started focusing on cricket more than anything else and I went to the basics and practiced those,” said Rohan. “The hardest part is doing the basics, because no one wants to do the basics that you are required to practice, even though it’s boring.”

The cricket tournament in England will be held at multiple different fields around Kings College where they are staying with other cricket players from around Maryland and Loudoun.

“With the improvement to my skill, I got invited to play with a bunch of kids in a tournament in England, which was exciting,” said Rohan.

Beyond the technical skill and conditioning required, there is also an element of mental toughness.

“You need to be able to play in the sun for six-seven hours and you need the stamina to last that long,” said Rohan, “Crickets is a very mental game and you need to keep your focus regardless of the heat or the weather or whatever, because when you lose focus you are done, like that’s it.”

Rohan is headed to the cricket tournament in England early this summer.

“It’s time to see my hard work pay off,” said Rohan.