Anuj Rawat

Hailing from a small town of Ramnagar in Uttarakhand, Anuj Rawat came to Delhi in 2011 to fulfill his dream of becoming a wicket-keeper batsman. 

An emerging U-19 cricketer, Rawat, made his first-class debut for Delhi in the 2017-18 Ranji Trophy on October 6, 2017 and scored his maiden fifty with scores of 71 and 13 in two innings. He also grabbed two catches behind the stumps against Assam in that match. 

Rawat made his Twenty20 debut in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy on February 21, 2019. His consistent performances in domestic leagues for Delhi helped him grow steadily and his numerous batting masterclasses in the next edition of the Syed Ali Mushtaq trophy (2020) caught many eyes. 

Rawat’s career highlight was the unbeaten 88 against Saurashtra, which earned him his first IPL contract by Rajasthan Royals in the 2019 IPL auction for a price-tag of INR 80 lakhs.

The Bal-Bhavan alma-mater hasn’t yet debuted in IPL but learning from the likes of Jos Butler, Steve Smith, Ben Stokes has evolved him into a better cricketer. Rawat’s match-winning knock against Uttarakhand in the 2020-21 Vijay Hazare trophy earned him heaps of praises from the cricket fraternity. He along with the Delhi skipper Pradeep Sangwan scripted a sensational comeback when they were 146/6  and then ended up chasing 288. Rawat’s historic knock of unbeaten 95 helped Delhi advance to the quarter-finals of the tournament.

The young wicket-keeper batsman taking inspiration from the mighty Adam Gilchrist has already sown seeds into the Indian cricket team and going by statistics, it won’t be long before Anuj Rawat becomes one of the best wicket-keepers for India in the upcoming years.