Nikhil proudly dons Australian colours as dream turns reality

Australia's new all-rounder Nikhil Chaudhury is on cloud nine. He stands out from the crowd in a hotel lobby in Chattogram, wearing a black t-shirt with a big gold chain around his neck.
An Indian-born Australian, Nikhil made his T20I debut against Bangladesh in the series opener on Wednesday (June 17), making history as the first India-born male cricketer in six decades to debut for Australia, reports Cricbuzz.
According to Cricket Australia, several players of Indian origin, including Gurinder Sandhu and Tanveer Sangha, have represented Australia. However, no India-born male cricketer had played for the national side since Gujarat-born leg-spinner Rex Sellars featured in the 1964 Test against India in Calcutta. Former Australia women's captain Lisa Sthalekar, who was born in Pune, has represented and led Australia.
Nikhil, who represented Punjab in domestic cricket, insisted that ever since he took a diving catch of Soumya Sarkar in the series opener, he was sure he could manage at the international level.
"We always dream of playing for Australia and it actually happened yesterday. With this gun crew, I was a bit confident about actually going into the field and after that first catch, I was even more confident that I can actually do something on the international stage," said Nikhil.
"So we had some camps in Brisbane, probably like four camps before the series, but I wasn't in the squad at that time. And then I think Travis (Head) took a leave to stay in Australia, obviously to spend more time with his family. I was in Belgium at that time when Tony called me regarding the selection.
"So yeah, I was just playing cricket as I do. I just go all around the world to play cricket, but it was probably the best moment of my life to actually hear from the Australian selector that I've been called up for the series. Even then, I wasn't sure if I was going to play. And then obviously, the day before yesterday, probably a couple of hours before sleeping, I got to know that I'm going to play. So I was a bit anxious.
"Obviously, you always dream of playing for Australia. Once I started playing in Australia, I always dreamt of playing for Australia. That was probably the best moment of my life till now," he said, adding that he loved the crowd at Chattogram, which gave him a good welcome.