The 21-year-old Ravi Bishnoi made his debut on Wednesday (February 16) in the first T20 match between India and West Indies being played at the Eden Gardens stadium.
Defying all the odds to materialise his dream to represent India, Bishnoi has come a long way.
He was born in Jodhpur to government school headmaster Mangilal Bishnoi and housewife Sohni Devi, Bishnoi’s love for cricket came from his mother, who is an avid cricket fan.
Bishnoi, who started off as a medium pacer while playing tennis ball cricket at the RTO ground in Jodhpur’s BJS Colony, was first noticed by coaches Shah Rukh Khan Pathan and Pradyot Singh, who went on to become his mentors. It was only after the advice from his mentors that Bishnoi learnt leg-spin bowling and gradually started bowling googlies. In 2015, the two mentors along with the young cricketers set-up the Spartan Cricket Academy, but that was a major challenge.
Lack of funds meant that they were unable to afford labourers to build the academy, so from setting up the pitches to building the turf, the coaches and the cricketers did everything by themselves and Bishnoi was one of them.
Bishnoi had his fair share of struggles in his early years with lack of opportunities but he finally made his debut for Rajasthan in the Vinoo Mankad Trophy in 2019 and he impressed with 14 wickets in List A (8 wickets from six matches) and T20s (6 wickets from six matches) combined. He made his senior team List A and T20s debut in the same year and was then called up for the U-19 Indian team.
And then came the big moment, following a bidding war between Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab) in December 2019, Bishnoi was finally bought by the Punjab franchise for Rs 2 crore.
Bishnoi had taken four wickets in as many games for Rajasthan in the 2018-19 edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, while scalping seven wickets from five games in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Bishnoi also registered best figures of 3/49 during the tournament.
Bishnoi carried that confidence in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2020, where India finished runners-up after losing to Bangladesh.
He ended as the tournament’s highest wicket-taker with 17 scalps from just six matches, with best bowling figures of 4/5.
In the two seasons in IPL (2020 and 2021), Bishnoi has impressed everyone. He was KXIP's second-highest wicket-taker in the 2020 edition with 12 wickets from 14 matches at 31.33 and an economy rate of 7.37. He scalped 12 wickets from 9 matches in the 2021 season and finished as the third-highest wicket-taker for Punjab Kings at an impressive average of 19.16 and economy rate of 6.38.
Ahead of IPL 2022, Ravi Bishnoi was recently acquired by the new franchise Lucknow Super Giants for Rs 4 crore, with the other two signings being KL Rahul (Rs 17 crore) and Marcus Stoinis (Rs 9.2 crore).
After the IPL 2022 auction, while giving an interview to Sports Tak, Ravi had said that that his dream was to become a cricketer since childhood. For this, he could not study much and at one time he had also prepared a cricket field by working as a laborer. He also added that there was no such special infrastructure regarding cricket in our Jodhpur due to which he had to face a lot of difficulties in practicing. They were short of money to build a cricket academy in Jodhpur, so together they all worked as a labourer for 6 months and prepared a cricket field which paved the way for Bishnoi's future.
