Ranji Trophy 2024: Deepak Dhapola opens up on IPL prospects after consecutive hat tricks

Uttarakhand fast bowler Deepak Dhapola has been grabbing attention in the cricketing fraternity for his consecutive hat tricks in the Ranji Trophy 2024. The 33-year-old achieved his first during the second innings of Uttarakhand’s third fixture against Puducherry.

The right-arm speedster further picked up his second hat-trick against Delhi in the next fixture once again in the second innings grabbing the crucial scalps of Arpit Rana, Yash Dhull and Kshitiz Sharma for ducks. However, both his performances couldn’t help his team secure a win as Uttarakhand suffered back-to-back losses.

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Courtesy of his magnificent bowling performances, he finds himself on the fourth spot on the points table with 23 wickets from seven innings at an average of 12.95 and an economy of 2.78. Notably, Dhapola began his cricket training and professional cricket under the guidance of Virat Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma. However, after being in the standbys for so long for Delhi, he decided to shift to Calcutta.

“I started playing professional cricket under him (Rajkumar). I played cricket in Delhi for nearly 10-12 years. I was in the standbys, I even played in Calcutta (for some time). I kept taking wickets but didn’t get a chance (for the state teams). So I decided to move to Uttarakhand. By god’s grace and hard work, I have been taking wickets (regularly),” Deepak was quoted as saying by News18.

Further speaking about his hopes of playing IPL, Dhapola said that he’s only focussed on playing good cricket at the moment.

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If god has it in store for me, it will happen: Deepak Dhapola

“See, I have focused only on playing good cricket and if god has it in store for me, it will happen. I am in a competition with myself to get better day by day. I have a lot of confidence in myself. The faith from teammates and coaches helps. When people have expectations from you then you get even more motivated to work on them,” he added.

Earlier, Dhapola even earned praise from BCCI Secretary Jay Shah for his sensational 8/35 against Himachal Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy 2022.