Who is Rachin Ravindra? - All you need to know about New Zealand's young batting sensation

New Zealand have begun their World Cup 2023 campaign with a bang as they’ve won both of their warm-up matches against Pakistan and South Africa. The Kiwis continued their winning run in the first league fixture vs England as well courtesy of brilliant knocks from Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra.

Ravindra has looked in imperious form in the tournament so far as he scored a sensational 97 (72) in the first warm-up fixture vs Pakistan smashing 16 fours and a six in his innings. The 23-year-old carried continued his brilliant run in the first league game as well, as he looked at his aggressive best smashing boundaries at will. Ravindra scored a scintillating hundred vs England and got involved in a massive partnership with Devon Conway (152* off 121) to help his side win the match nine wickets.

Ravindra scored a scintillating 123* (96) smashing 11 fours and five sixes in his innings. Notably, the Kiwi cricketer has Indian roots and shone with the bat in his first outing in the World Cup.

The southpaw is of Indian descent and has an interesting first name, Rachin, which is a portmanteau of legendary India cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Ravindra, who hails from New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington, was born to Indian parents Ravi Krishnamurthy, a software system architect from Bengaluru, and Deepa Krishnamurthy. Ravindra’s father, the founder of the Hutt Hawks Club in New Zealand, moved to the country in the early 1990s, and himself played the sport in Bengaluru earlier.

The youngster has been a part of New Zealand’s squads for the 2016 Under-19 World Cup and the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup as well. Ravindra has also played in India during his off-seasons. During his age-level cricket, he got a contract with Wellington in the 2018-19 season, while he made his List A debut against Pakistan in the same season. He scored his maiden List A century, representing Wellington, in the 2019-20 Ford Trophy, and notched up his maiden first-class century in the 2019-20 Plunket Shield.

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Rachin Ravindra made his Test debut vs India 

He was a part of the New Zealand squad for the World Test Championship final 2021 but didn’t feature in the game. The left-arm spinner made his international debut during a T20I vs Bangladesh in Mirpur on September 01, 2021. He further made his Test debut in the same year vs India during the first Test in Kanpur played from November 25-29.

“My batting idol is Sachin Tendulkar. I have modelled my game on him since I was very young,” Rachin had told Stuff.co.nz way back in November 2016.