Who is Himanshu Sharma? Meet RCB's Debutant For All-Important Match vs Gujarat Titans

Royal Challengers Bangalore handed the debut to the young spinner Himanshu Sharma for the all-important clash against Gujarat Titans at MA Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday. In the last league stage match of the season, RCB dropper Karn Sharma and picked unknown Himanshu who made his competitive cricket debut with Sunday’s clash.

Himanshu was signed for INR 20 Lakh in the IPL 2023 mini-auction which came as a surprise for many as he hasn’t played competitive cricket with no record of First Class or List A cricket.

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The 24-year-old’s talent was identified by RCB’s Head of Scouting, Malolan Rangarajan. The Rajasthan-born spinner caught the eye of Rangarajan as he has the ability to turn the ball both ways.

The young leggie hails from the Sikar district of Rajasthan. In an interview, Himanshu revealed that began practicing at the Jaipuria Cricket Academy in Jaipur under the guidance of academy coach Rohit Jhalani.

After signing Himanshu for INR 20 Lakh in the mini-auction, RCB’s Head of Scouting Rangarajan Talked about the young player and revealed the process of picking him as their option in the auction.

“Himanshu is a very exciting talent. It’s a good time to speak about our process and what we have in RCB from a scouting point of view. We first identified him a year back and we have been tracking him ever since and this year we had a camp for our existing RCB players and we chose to invite him over. We gave him a very useful opportunity using our coaches, Sanjay Bangar and obviously our batting and spin bowling coach Sriram,” Rangarajan told RCB Bold Diaries.

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Rangarajan further stated that RCB can develop Himanshu as a player as he has the skill to do wonders.

“We have tested him according to our standard drills. Himanshu is exciting in a way because he is from Rajasthan, he is a club-level cricketer, and he has not played any competitive cricket. He is extremely skilled, however, and we are also looking into the future also but knowing he is still good and we can develop him.”

“He is a leg-spinner who has the ability to turn the ball both ways. It’s how our scouting process works. It’s nice to see that someone has actually come from that level,” he added.