Quick-gun Rohan: The 'Indian' who throws a lethal fastball

Rohan Handa, 21, is a student at Yale University.

Move over Jasprit Bumrah, there’s a new Indian pacer in town. Meet Rohan Handa, a 21-year-old who hits the high 90s (miles per hour) with regular consistency. Only, unlike Bumrah, Handa doesn’t bowl—he pitches; and unlike Bumrah, Handa isn’t Indian, but of Indian descent.

On Tuesday, the Yale student turned pro after he was picked up by the Major League Baseball side, San Francisco Giants. It was Rohan’s raw pace that first got him attention from talent scouts across USA—he recorded 97.8 miles per hour (mph) on the speed gun during a collegiate league game earlier this year. But what does this speed truly signify and where does it put him in comparison to the rest of the field?

‘Above-average’ is Rohan’s own assessment. “I wouldn’t say I am necessarily great, because a lot of people are hitting 100 miles-per-hour here. It has suddenly become quite common”,  he says, during a phone interview with Moneycontrol.com

Speed gun charts in Major League Baseball align with Rohan’s evaluation. For the longest time, the best baseball pitchers strived to touch the 100mph mark. But today, it’s quite common for major league pitchers to routinely clock 95+ mph. The record for the quickest fastball in fact, stands at 105.8 miles per hour.

And so, speed isn’t the only thing the left-arm pitcher has his hopes pinned on. He boasts of three different variations in his armoury: a fastball of course, and a slider and splitter—each comprising different speed and movement. “If you have these three variations, you are going to be a successful pitcher”, he explains.

Handa being drafted by a professional sporting franchise was a rare moment in itself, in a country where the only time the Indian community is prominently featured on the sports pages/sport channels is during the very popular, highly competitive spelling bee contests—the rare exception notwithstanding.

“Stereotypes are very normal around here”, he admits. “I am used to comments like—Indians are the studious types so how come I got into sports? But I take them very sportingly, like good banter, but deep down I know what my goals are and what I am trying to achieve.”

That’s not to say Rohan’s spellings aren’t up to scratch. He loves to play the V-I-O-L-A, the Ivy Leaguer tells us. He was also a member of the Mandarin and Math Honours Societies at Yale. And is the founder of the U.S. Chapter of an international charity organisation called Kitaab, which promotes literacy among underprivileged children by making books available to them.

The little grey cells have been inherited from his parents. Mother, Mona, has a master’s in social work and psychology from Delhi University, while father, Vikas, graduated from Indian Institute of Technology and is an IT entrepreneur.

Rohan’s baseball journey started as a four-year-old playing alongside his brother Kunal in the front yard of their parents home in Charlotte, North Carolina. But, it turns out, baseball wasn’t the only sport played in this Indian household.

“Growing up, I did play cricket with my brother. Nothing too serious, just for fun.”

For a boy who had a good throwing arm since he was a kid and is now a pro pitcher, he made for a pretty lethal bowler in front-yard cricket, you’d think.

“No, I wouldn’t say I am particularly good at bowling,” Rohan is quick to add. “The batting side of me is a little bit better. As for bowling, the motions are a little bit difficult, you gotta keep the arm straight which is a different aspect of throwing when compared to baseball.” A regular watcher of the IPL, Rohan’s list of favourite cricketers confirms his fondness for batting; it reads—Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill. The only bowler that makes his list is, surprise surprise, Jasprit Bumrah!

Interestingly, along with Handa, another pitcher of Indian descent, Kumar Rocker was signed up by a Major League Baseball team, the New York Mets, this week. Rocker, 21, is the son of a Black American father and an Indian American mother. That makes it a total of four Indian Americans in MLB currently—two pitchers, Kumar Nambiar and Karan Patel had been drafted into pro baseball in 2019 by Oakland A’s and Chicago White Sox, respectively. Add to that the remarkable story of Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel—youngsters from rural India who won a reality TV show contest called ‘Million Dollar Arm” in 2008 and were subsequently drafted into MLB by the Pittsburg Pirates before dropping out of the sport—and the list of players of Indian descent in MLB goes up to six.

Despite this recent influx of Indian origin players in MLB, no player of Indian descent has ever made the majors in baseball. The six names above, even though signed on by top-division clubs, have only featured in minor leagues—the second, third and fourth rung of professional baseball. So, the race to be the first player of Indian origin to play top-level baseball is still on.

“Everyone who gets drafted has to spend sometime in minor leagues, you have to get used to the system, because the talent between the big leagues and the minor leagues is a major difference,” explains Rohan. “But if I perform through the minor leagues and remain consistent, I expect a quick transition, hopefully play at the highest level in 2-3 years.”

Rohan’s optimism isn’t misplaced. Here’s what NBC Sports made of his pro baseball call-up: "Perhaps the most intriguing Giants pick of the day came in the fifth round, San Francisco might have found a gem in Yale lefty Rohan Handa."

After the much publicised ‘Million Dollar Arm’ contest, and the subsequent Hollywood film that was made on it, MLB has actively been trying to evangelise the sport of baseball in cricket-crazy India. They opened an office in New Delhi, in 2019, and claim to have conducted more than 300 workshops in three cities across the country, involving over 30,000 children.

Despite these efforts, a home-grown Indian player reaching the highest levels of pro baseball seems like a long shot, considering the sport is still in its infancy here. Perhaps then, the more likely scenario of an Indian American making it to big league baseball could help MLB steal a base or two over cricket in India. Nothing quite hits home in India than an Indian connection, after all.