Rachin Ravindra

Rachin Ravindra (born 18 November 1999) is a New Zealand international cricketer. He made his international debut for the New Zealand cricket team in September 2021.

In December 2023, Rachin Ravindra was signed by the Chennai Super Kings in the player auction for the 2024 Indian Premier League.

Early life

Rachin Ravindra was born in Wellington on 18 November 1999 to parents from Bangalore. His father Ravi Krishnamurthy, a software architect, played club-level cricket in Bangalore before settling in New Zealand in 1997. Rachin Ravindra's first name was reported to be a portmanteau of the first names of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar, but his father, while acknowledging the portmanteau, dismissed it as coincidence. His grandfather Balakrishna Adiga is a renowned educationist in India. He began his cricket journey after being influenced by Sachin Tendulkar since childhood.

Rachin Ravindra began playing cricket in Wellington at the age of five, and traveled to Bangalore every year to play club cricket.

Career

Rachin was a part of New Zealand's squads for the 2016 and the 2018 under-19 World Cups. Following the conclusion of the 2018 edition, the International Cricket Council (ICC) named Rachin Ravindra as one of the rising stars of the competition. In June 2018, he was awarded a contract with Wellington for the 2018–19 season.

Rachin made his List A debut for New Zealand A against Pakistan A in October 2018. He made his first-class debut for New Zealand A against the same side later in the month. In November 2019, batting for Wellington against Auckland in the 2019–20 Ford Trophy, he scored his first century in List A cricket. In March 2020, in round six of the 2019–20 Plunket Shield season, he scored his maiden century in first-class cricket.

In June 2020, Rachin was offered a contract by Wellington ahead of the 2020–21 domestic cricket season. In November, he was named in the New Zealand A cricket team for practice matches against the touring West Indies team. In the first practice match, he scored a century, with 112 runs.

In April 2021, Rachin was named in New Zealand's Test squad for their series against England, and for the final of the 2019–21 ICC World Test Championship. In August, he was named in New Zealand's Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for their tour of Bangladesh, and in the One Day International (ODI) squad for their tour of Pakistan. Rachin Ravindra made his T20I debut on 1 September that year, against Bangladesh.

In November 2021, Rachin was named in New Zealand's Test squad for their series against India. He made his Test debut on 25 November 2021, for New Zealand against India. In June 2022, he was signed by Durham County Cricket Club to play in the County Championship in England. Later that month, on his debut for Durham, he scored a century against Worcestershire. He went on to convert that into his maiden double century, scoring 217 runs. He made his ODI debut for New Zealand against Sri Lanka, on 25 March 2023.

2023 proved to be a breakthrough season for Rachin, amassing 3 centuries and 578 runs at the 2023 World Cup, ending the year with 820 ODI runs at 41, with a strike rate of 108.03, and winning the 2023 ICC Men's Emerging Cricketer of the Year award.

In February 2024, during the first Test of South Africa's tour of New Zealand, batting at No. 4, Rachin scored 240, his maiden Test century. It is the highest maiden Test century by a New Zealand batter.

Rachin was named in New Zealand's squad for the 2023 World Cup. He was not officially in contention to make it into the final squad for the 2023 World Cup, but he found his way into the 15 man squad replacing injured Michael Bracewell. Rachin was not a first choice option for New Zealand going into the World Cup preparations in full swing, as he was predominantly used by New Zealand team as a spin bowling all-rounder who could bat way down the order. However, a fitness concerns to New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson brought about a paradigm shift approach within the team management which opted to promote Rachin to bat at number three position in New Zealand's opening match against England. Prior to the start of the World Cup, he didn't bat at a position higher than number 6 slot in the sporadic ODI appearances he featured for the Black Caps.

In the opening match against England, batting at no. 3 in place of Williamson, he became only the fourth Kiwi player to hit a century on World Cup debut by scoring 123* runs off just 96 balls. It was also coincidentally his maiden ODI century. This was also the fastest century by a New Zealand player in World Cup, reaching 100 in 82 balls. He also became the youngest New Zealand player to score a World Cup century at the age of 23 years and 321 days. Also, along with Devon Conway, he registered the fourth highest partnership in World Cup history, and helped his team beat the defending champions. On 28 October 2023, during a group stage match against Australia, Rachin scored his second century and gave New Zealand a glimmer of hope in a high scoring runchase of 389 at Dharamsala which New Zealand agonisingly lost by 5 runs, a match which became a runfest aggregating whopping 771 runs to become the World Cup match with the highest aggregate involving the combination of both teams' totals. He became only the second batter in World Cup history after Sachin Tendulkar to have scored 2 centuries in World Cups at the age of 23. Soon after another century against Pakistan, he became the first cricketer to score 3 centuries and 2 50s in his debut World Cup. Rachin was also 2nd on the leaderboard for most runs scored in the World Cup next to Quinton de Kock.

On 4 November 2023, during a group stage match against Pakistan, Rachin became the second youngest batter after Sachin Tendulkar in the ODI World Cup history to complete 500 runs. He also broke Tendulkar's record of most World Cup centuries before the age of 24 years when he completed his century against Pakistan. He also became the first batter in World Cup history to score three centuries on World Cup debut. He also became the first New Zealand batter to score three World Cup centuries and set the record for most World Cup centuries scored by a player for New Zealand in World Cup history.

On 9 November 2023, during a group stage match against Sri Lanka, he broke Jonny Bairstow's record for having scored the most number of runs by a player in his debut World Cup with 550 runs. He also surpassed Tendulkar's record for having scored the most runs in a single edition of the World Cup before turning 25 with a tally of 550 runs in 9 matches.

On 22 March 2024, Rachin made his Indian Premier League debut as a player of Chennai Super Kings against Royal Challengers Bangalore. He scored the first six for his team in the league. He scored 37 runs in just 15 balls before being caught out by Rajat Patidar of the bowling of Karn Sharma. The following match he scored 46 off 20 (Strike rate 230) Rashid Khan got him out. He scored his first fifty against RCB on May 18. Rachin scored a total of 222 runs in the 10 matches he played for CSK.

In May 2024, he was named in New Zealand’s squad for the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup tournament.

Honours

• ICC Men's Emerging Cricketer of the Year: 2023