Abhimanyu Easwaran

Abhimanyu Easwaran might be less known to some, but those who know their cricket have heard big things about him. He is the captain of Bengal’s Ranji Trophy and will be leading India A during their tour of South Africa, in late 2021.  

Born in Dehradun, Easwaran has always had a humongous passion for the game. At the mere age of 10 years, he shifted to West Bengal for better opportunities to pursue his cricket career, where he lived with his coach Nirmal Sengupta. 

In Kolkata, his real journey began and he grew leap to leap there. He first represented Bengal’s U-19 team, before playing for the state. He made his debut Ranji Trophy during the 2013-14 season. While his List-A debut and T20 debuts came in 2015 and 2017 respectively. 

The stylish top-order batter had a major breakthrough season, when he totalled 861 runs at an average of 95.66, during the 2018-19 Ranji season. Later, he was added to the India Red team's squad for the 2019-20 Duleep Trophy, to notch up 153 runs in the final. 

This was just the beginning of Abhimanyu Easwaran as he received his major India call-up when added to the standby for the England tour in June 2021, despite having a big dip in 2019-20. He was there surrounded by some controversies as, allegedly, Indian captain - Virat Kohli found him not measuring up. However, he was still backed by the national selectors. 

Later in November, Easwaran was again in between controversy during the chief selector - Chetan Sharma named the Bengal captain to lead the India A side in South Africa, despite the breakdown in communication with the Test skipper. 

Keeping all that aside, Easwaran remains a brilliant student of the game who has a keen eye for learning. While his technique, playing style and game awareness mark him out as someone with a bright future. 

(As of November 2021)