Batsman made of bowler got a chance. (Photo- PTI)
Rajasthan Royals made many major changes in their playing 11 against Kolkata Knight Riders, the 53rd match of IPL 2025. Nitish Rana could not be a part of the match due to injury. At the same time, Kumar Karthikeya and Fazalhak Farooqui were shown the way out of playing 11. In place of them, Yudhveer Singh Charak and Vanindu Hasranga entered the playing 11. Apart from these, a 22 -year -old player also got a chance in playing 11. The story of this player reaching the IPL is quite exciting. This player had adopted a shortcut to bat, which also got a lot of work.
Batsman batsman got a chance
In this match against Kolkata Knight Riders, 22 -year -old young wicketkeeper batsman Kunal Singh Rathore was included in playing 11. Kunal Singh Rathore is a resident of Kota in Rajasthan. Kunal started playing cricket at the age of 8. In the mega auction for IPL 2025, Rajasthan team bought him for 30 lakh rupees. He was also selected in RR’s team in the IPL 2023 auction, but did not get a chance to play a single game.
Let me tell you, Kunal Singh Rathore was a fast bowler at the beginning of his career. He was very fond of fast bowling. But when he came to know that the fast bowlers did not get a chance to bat quickly in practice, they adopted a shortcut and became wicketkeeper batsman. After this, he never looked back. He also participated in the Rajasthan Royals Academy Camp in Nagpur as an under-17 player. He has taken training under the supervision of Royals’ High Performance Director Zubin Bharucha.
Kunal Singh Rathore’s cricket career
Kunal made his domestic cricket debut in 2022 for Rajasthan. He has played 15 First Class, 16 List A and 12 T20 matches so far. In the first class, he has scored 580 runs with 2 half -centuries and 1 century. List one has 404 runs with 3 half -centuries with 3 half -centuries. At the same time, he has scored 254 runs in T20. Apart from this, this is his second match in IPL. Earlier, he made his debut against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 42nd match of IPL 2025. But then he did not get a chance to bat.