It isn’t uncommon for cricketers of Indian origin to play for New Zealand. The likes of Ish Sodhi, Jeetan Patel, Jeet Raval, etc. have played for the Blackcaps over the course of the nation’s cricketing history. As New Zealand took on India in the 1st T20I of the 3-match series in Jaipur, another player of Indian origin found a place in their playing XI and that player was Rachin Ravindra. The middle-order batsman didn’t get to spend much time on the pitch as he was bundled out by Mohammed Siraj for just 7 runs from 8 deliveries.
However, when Rachin Ravindra arrived at the crease did make Indian cricket fans Google his name to find out a little more about the player. Rachin is a 21-year-old all-rounder who has been named after two Indian cricket greats — Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Rachin was born in Wellington to Indian parents — Ravi Krishnamurthy who is a software system architect and Deepa Krishnamurthy.
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Rachin’s father, Ravi, had moved from Bangalore to New Zealand in the 1990s and founded Hutt Hawks Club. Rachin Ravindra has represented New Zealand in the 2016 Under-19 World Cup as well as the 2018 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He has played 6 T20Is for the Kiwis, making his debut against Bangladesh in the series earlier this year in September.
Rachin Ravindra was even selected in the New Zealand squad for the World Test Championship final against India at Lord’s but he wasn’t included in the playing XI. As per the quotes in Telangana Today, he said, “I’ve trained, played at RDT (Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh) every year in the last four years during our winter.”
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One of the coaches at the Andhra Pradesh cricket academy, Khatib Syed Shahabuddin, has also spoken highly of the Kiwi player.
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Syed said, “He (Rachin Ravindra) was part of the Hutt Hawks contingent that used to train at the Rural Development Trust at Anantapur for the last four years. He is a promising cricketer. As a young cricketer, he showed a lot of promise and hunger to excel as a left-handed bat and left-arm spin.”
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Speaking of his idols himself, Rachin had told Stuff.co.nz back in November 2016 as he said, “My batting idol is Sachin Tendulkar. I have modelled my game on him since I was very young.”
