'When you hit sixes…'- MI's star batsman wanted to quit cricket; Father inspired me like this

Naman Dhir Inspireing Story: In the mega auction held for IPL 2025, Mumbai Indians spent the most money to buy fast bowler Trent Boult. At the same time, young batsmen like Naman Dheer were also successful in earning a good amount of money. He was also seen playing for Mumbai in the last season of IPL. But very few people would know that Naman Dhir had made a complete plan to leave cricket and shift to Canada in 2022. This has been revealed by his father Naresh Dheer.

Actually, despite representing Punjab in Under-16, Naman was not getting many opportunities. Naman was very disappointed after seeing his career getting ruined and he had decided to shift to Canada.

In an interview to Indian Express, Naman said, 'Half of Punjab wants to go to Canada and I was also one of them. I almost quit cricket in early 2022. My sister lives in Edmonton, Canada and I was planning to go there. My father said to give yourself one year's time. I did this and made my Ranji Trophy debut in December 2022. After some time, Mumbai Indians selected me.

Father had encouraged Naman Dheer

Naman's father Naresh helped him take the right decision of staying associated with cricket. Recalling that time, he said that when I used to go to his (Naman) school and take him for cricket practice, the principal madam used to say, 'Dheer sir, you are ruining his career. No one from Faridkot represented Punjab, leave alone India. When this taunt became common, one day I said to Naman, 'Once you come on TV hitting sixes, these taunts will turn into applause.'

Naman proved his father's words true in IPL 2024. In the match played against Lucknow Super Giants, he scored 62 runs in 28 balls, which included 5 skyscraper sixes. Because of his innings he came into limelight.

Naman told that when the IPL 2025 mega auction was going on, his heart was beating loudly. I had full hopes of getting an IPL contract, but I did not think that I would get such a huge amount.