MILTON, Ga. — When someone says cricket, do you hear crickets? Silence is often the reaction Aarav Shukla gets when he tells people all about his favorite sport.

“I chose to love and play cricket,” says Aarav. “It’s a sport most people in my school have never even heard of, but I hope to make more of my friends learn about it and enjoy it.”

Cricket is England’s national summer sport which is now played around the world. Cricket is played with a bat and ball with two teams made up of 11 players each. There are batsman and bowlers who stand opposite of each other on the field, called the pitch.

The bowler is like a pitcher but sends the ball bouncing instead of flying through the air. The batter’s goal is to block the ball from hitting three stumps behind him called a wicket. These stumps, kind of like a home plate, have small sticks balancing on them and if the ball knocks them down, the batter is out.

Unlike baseball, cricket has two wickets. The batsman’s other goal is to hit the ball into the field, which lets the other batsman run back and forth between the wickets until the ball is returned.

When his friends ask about cricket, Aarav has his own response.

“Baseball actually evolved from cricket,” says Aarav. “Cricket is the tenacity of tennis, teamwork like soccer, and batsmen have the reflexes like in football. It has many formats, with the most popular being the three-hour match.”

Now 11, Aarav first started playing cricket when he was eight years old. His family moved to Milton from Indianapolis when he was nine. The Northwestern 6th grader joined the NACA and started playing cricket on a regular basis, including a tournament in Raleigh, NC.

Now captain of his U11 team, he practices 3-4 times a week for several hours in batting cages and on the field. His dream is to make the Milton High School cricket team and represent his school in his sport.

On his team, Aarav is what they call an “all rounder.”

“He plays both batsmen and bowler (pitcher),” says his mom Ritu Maheshwari. “Very few things will stump him, but ask him which one he likes better and you’ve got him.”

In one of his games, Aarav brought home some serious hardware as team MVP, drawing inspiration from his idol, Sachin Tendulkar, one of the best cricketers in the world.

And while this kid is cricket crazy, playing at the beach, airport, and on any field he can find, his favorite sport is actually football. He loves cheering on the Colts and the Falcons.

In his spare time, you can find Aarav playing golf at one of his favorite places, Top Golf or dining on pizza and wings. And for keeping fit on the field, his go to snacks are fruits and cucumbers.

Maybe Aarav can add future YouTube star to his resume soon. He’s working on a video to quickly explain cricket to all of his friends and soon to be followers.

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