Who is Ravi Bishnoi? All you need to know about young leg-spinner who received maiden India call-up

Uncapped young leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi on Wednesday received his maiden call-up to the senior Indian team, as the BCCI selectors announced the ODI and T20 squads for the home series against West Indies, starting on 6 February.

Bishnoi has played for Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) over the last couple of seasons since making his tournament debut in 2020.

So, who is Ravi Bishnoi? Here’s all you need to know about the 21-year-old:

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 would go 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)