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.

Early life
Ravindra was born in Wellington on 18 November 1999 to parents of Indian New Zealander origin. His father Ravi Krishnamurthy, a software architect, played club-level cricket in his hometown Bengaluru, before settling in New Zealand in 1997. Ravindra's first name is a portmanteau of the first names of Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.

Ravindra began playing hard ball cricket in Wellington at the age of 5, and would fly to Bengaluru every year to play club cricket there.

Career
Ravindra was 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 Ravindra as the rising star of the squad. In June 2018, he was awarded a contract with Wellington for the 2018–19 season.

Ravindra made his List A debut for New Zealand A against Pakistan A on 21 October 2018. He made his first-class debut for New Zealand A, also against Pakistan A, on 30 October 2018. On 25 November 2019, batting for Wellington against Auckland in the 2019–20 Ford Trophy, Ravindra 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, Ravindra 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, Ravindra 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. Ravindra made his T20I debut on 1 September that year, against Bangladesh.

In November 2021, Ravindra 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, Ravindra was signed by Durham County Cricket Club to play in the County Championship in England. Later that month, on his debut for Durham, Ravindra 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.

Ravindra was named in New Zealand's squad for the 2023 World Cup. In the opening match against England, batting at no. 3, he became only the fourth Kiwi player to hit a century on World Cup debut by scoring 123* runs off just 96 balls. This was also the fastest century by any New Zealand player in World Cups, completing it in 82 balls. Also, along with Devon Conway, he registered the fourth highest partnership in World Cup history, and helped his team beat the defending champions.  

On 29th October 2023, he scored another century in the 2023 Cricket World Cup against the Aussies in a losing cause.

References

External links
 

1999 births
Living people
New Zealand cricketers
New Zealand Test cricketers
New Zealand Twenty20 International cricketers
Wellington cricketers
Cricketers from Wellington City
New Zealand sportspeople of Indian descent
New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England
Durham cricketers
Cricketers at the 2023 Cricket World Cup