7 Interesting facts about Rajneesh Gurbani - India's exciting prospect

24-year-old Vidarbha’s Rajneesh Gurbani scripted history by becoming only the second bowler to bag a hat-trick in the final of Ranji Trophy. The only bowler to pick a hat-trick in a Ranji Trophy final before Gurbani was Tamil Nadu’s B Kalyanasundaram who achieved the feat against Bombay in the 1972/73 final.

Playing against Delhi, the speedster picked the wickets of Vikas Mishra and Navdeep Saini on the last couple of deliveries of his 24th over. He then removed centurion Dhruv Shorey on the first ball of his next over, completing the hat-trick. Gurbani then claimed another wicket in the same over to help his side bowl out Delhi for 295 in the first innings. Remarkably, all four of these dismissals were bowled. He entered the record books after finishing the Ranji finals with figures of 6/59.

Here are some facts you need to know about one the 24-year-old exciting prospect of Indian cricket.

Early Days

Born in Nagpur in 1993, the pacer spent his first few years playing the sport in Mumbai. He played at the school level and represented St Mary’s school in prestigious tournaments such as the Giles Shield.

A civil engineer graduate

After moving back to Nagpur, Gurbani took up the sport seriously and joined a local club with an eye at becoming a professional cricketer. Son of a school principal and a civil engineer and brother of an IIT Kharagpur student, the Vidarbha cricketer graduated as a civil engineer himself.

Debut in First-class cricket

The 24-year-old made his first-class debut for Vidarbha last year in the Ranji Trophy against Jharkhand. He went on to bag 13 wickets in four matches of his debut season.

While his List-A debut came in 2015 when he took the field for Vidarbha against Odisha, his T20 debut was against Gujarat in 2016.

Indomitable self-belief

Gurbani didn’t start the 2017/18 season strongly and was able to bag just four wickets in his first two matches. However, he came back strongly and got eight, seven and 12 in the next three encounters respectively.

The pacer eventually found his mojo back during the semi-final against a star-studded Karnataka team where he bagged five wickets in the first innings and seven in the second, helping Vidarbha to reach their first ever Ranji Trophy final.

Impressive spell in the Ranji finals

His 6/59 in the first innings of the final is his second-best Ranji Trophy figure after the 7/68 against Karnataka. Remarkably, all five of his best Ranji Trophy bowling performances have come in 2017/18 season itself.

Spectacular season

Gurbani picked 39 wickets in Ranji 2017/18 season and was the second highest wicket-taker behind Kerala’s Jalaj Saxena.

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