While kids appearing for their board exams this year are having a hard time shuffling between watching the IPL matches and preparing for their exams, IPL’s youngest ever player and Royal Challengers Bangalore’s leg-spinner Prayas Ray Barman is actually playing the IPL 2019 while simultaneously appearing for his CBSE board exams at the Kalyani Public School in Kolkata.

Prayas, whose first match against the Sunrisers didn’t go as well as he would have expected after he conceded 0/56 of his four overs, has the full support of his team, stated his father. And since the entire bowling unit of RCB failed in the match, Prayas hasn’t lost heart and is working on giving his best in the upcoming matches. “(Virat) Kohli, AB (de Villiers) and (coach Gary) Kirsten are obviously encouraging him at the nets. Obviously, they have seen some potential in him to pick him ahead of the experienced duo of (Pawan) Negi and Washington Sundar. The call-up was completely unexpected for him as at first the team think-tank had decided to go for a seam-attack but skipper Kohli told Prayas of the debut just minutes before going for the toss. We were shocked to see his name in the line-up in RCB’s very third match. But he was not nervous,” the bowler’s father said.

At 16 years and 157 days, Prayas Barman is the youngest IPL debutant ever. Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, at 17 years and 11 days, who played for Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2018, was the previous youngest player. Prayas will be part of RCB’s next match against Rajasthan Royals on April 2. He will return to Kolkata for his Entrepreneurship exam on April 4, after which he will join the team for their match against KKR on April 5.