On the eve of Kolkata Knight Riders’ Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 encounter in opposition to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Raipur, assistant coach Shane Watson had a large grin throughout his face whereas answering a query about Angkrish Raghuvanshi within the pre-match press convention.
“I’ve been so lucky over time of coming to the IPL and having the ability to see some ridiculously proficient younger cricketers,” the Australian mentioned. “I keep in mind seeing Sanju Samson for the primary time, and I’d by no means seen a 17-year-old with that ability improvement. I proceed to see that with Vaibhav Soorayavanshi. Angkrish is one other a kind of,” he mentioned.
“It’s fairly astonishing, to be sincere. I do know we haven’t seen a constant explosion of ability, however we’ll,” the previous all-rounder declared. “It’s mind-blowing for me to have the ability to see his means to adapt to completely different situations, completely different bowlers and have all of the ability choices and shot choices to have the ability to navigate that in addition to he presumably can,” he added.
On Wednesday, in opposition to RCB, the 21-year-old gave a transparent account of what his coach had defined the day earlier than. Coming in to bat after the autumn of an early wicket and seeing his skipper depart quickly after, the younger Mumbai batter had his again in opposition to the wall.
However in a knock that displayed immense maturity and distinctive studying of the situations on supply, the lanky batter tallied his highest rating within the IPL to cleared the path with the bat for his aspect.
“I used to be very impressed with the best way he batted as a result of the ball was actually nipping round initially. [Josh] Hazlewood and Bhuvi [Bhuvneshwar Kumar] had been hitting the size. I felt he was tactically very astute,” KKR head coach Abhishek Nayar mentioned after the sport.
“I believed he paced his innings properly. Performed sq. of the wicket, used the angles rather well, picked his bowlers. I didn’t actually really feel that he was uncomfortable at any level. He belonged there, and that basically stood out to me,” he added.
When he made his IPL debut with the franchise in 2024, Raghuvanshi performed the position of an accelerator, hanging at a powerful 155.23 by way of the season regardless of scoring simply 163 runs at a mean of 23.28.
The next yr, after being purchased again within the public sale for Rs. 3 crore, he was shifted down the order and by no means actually acquired going. While there was a marginal enchancment in his common from the earlier yr, the strike fee fell to 139.53, beneath common for a participant batting within the center order.
Regardless of this inconsistency with the bat, the Knight Riders saved their religion in him, retaining him for one more yr within the midst of a mass clear-out. Raghuvanshi has repaid the franchise’s religion this yr, main the run-scoring charts for the aspect with 340 runs in 11 innings at a mean of 42.50.
This yr, he has additionally been given the added accountability of being the crew’s first-choice wicketkeeper.
“He’s finished an excellent job preserving. You need to assume that he’s not a full-time wicketkeeper. He’s labored ridiculously laborious. For keepers, you already know that they’ve finished a extremely good job once you don’t realise they’re there,” Watson mentioned.
“He’s a extremely expert younger man who simply can’t get sufficient of studying and getting higher. There are dream college students you wish to work with as a coach, and he’s undoubtedly one in every of them,” he added.
Printed on Could 14, 2026