Mumbai, Aug. 12 -- Yusha Nafees, part of India's bronze medal winning men's team at the World Squash Junior Championships, makes a request: "Hum Hindi mein baat kar sakte hai please? Meri English zara slow hai abhi (Can we speak in Hindi please? My English isn't the best as yet)." It's not typical of a youngster pursuing squash, among the most elite sports in India. Then again, little about this 17-year-old's journey in squash is typical. Growing up in Dhampur - a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, known for its sugar mills where his father is employed - Nafees remembers playing the game with torn balls stuck together with glue, because buying new ones frequently was a luxury beyond his family's means then. Fresher in his mind is the near 40-hour train journey from New Delhi to Chennai to turn up for the trials for last year's junior Worlds, because flying was a luxury they still couldn't afford. In a call to his parents during the long journey, the teen jokingly said, "This itself has been such a struggle, it'll be a shame if I don't make the cut now." He did, but still couldn't make it to the tournament in Houston because his US visa got rejected twice. And so, when Nafees finally made it to the junior Worlds this time in Cairo, he was pleased about returning with a medal even if not its colour. "After what happened to me last year, kaafi sahi laga (it felt good)," he said. Putting aside challenges isn't new for this under-17 national champion. Even though cricket ran in his blood - Nafees's father played cricket and stories of him facing Madan Lal in a local match in Dhampur fascinated the kid - Nafees loved squash the moment he first saw it in 2017 in the courts built in the mill where his father worked. Nafees's father encouraged him to pursue it, even if it meant the expensive sport drilled a deeper hole in their moderate pockets. "I'd play with the same racquet because getting a new one was out of the question. I'd stick together torn balls," Nafees said. "Dad might have felt the financial strain, but he never let me know. Sometimes I had doubts that if I don't do well, how can I carry on in this sport." Nafees won his first tournament in 2018, and became the national No.1 in under-13 before results plateaued. Those doubts would then creep in, but what remained steadfast was the mindset for every match - "jaan laga deni hai (leave everything out there)". That mindset and physicality caught the eye of Dhruv Dhawan, coach of the likes of pro Tanvi Khanna, whose Squash Xtreme academy runs a program for underprivileged kids. He saw Nafees play a match against the then India No.1 in his age group. "I have not seen a kid literally just run on a court without stopping," Dhawan said. "He wasn't hitting well enough. But the physicality was there, so my job as coach was just to sort his technique out." That physicality came naturally to Nafees, having grown up sprinting in farms, "be it rain, sun or cold". In 2023, Nafees joined Dhawan's academy, which not only refined his technique to go with the raw physicality, but also helped him secure more funding. He now trains in New Delhi, where he lives in a rented flat with his mother and sisters (one of whom also plays squash) while the father remains at work as a sales officer in the mill. Nafees can now afford to fly for tournaments, even though he has to limit the number. "The fear of balls getting worn out has gone at least," he chuckled. He sometimes spars with India's top pro Ramit Tandon when the latter is in town, but hopes for more and better quality sparring partners throughout the year. "He can make the world's top five in juniors, and then the transition to pros will be natural," said Dhawan. "The challenge will be to upscale his training ecosystem." Nafees also wishes to upgrade his junior Worlds medal next year. "I want an individual medal, and a better one," he said. "Bronze se kaam nahi chalega (bronze won't work)."...