After an impressive IPL debut, banter ruled. Angkrish Raghuvanshi, a die-hard Manchester United fan, took to social media to troll his team-mate Phil Salt.
The latter ostensibly falls for United’s “noisy neighbours” and Raghuvanshi emphatically reminded him via an Instagram repost: “Manchester is red”. The irreverence of youth had complete disregard for the current Premier League standings, where Manchester City are placed third with 67 points, while United are a distant sixth with 48 points.
Raghuvanshi replaced the injured Nitish Rana in the Kolkata Knight Riders playing XI against Delhi Capitals. Unlike last year, however, KKR this time have been revelling in a great team atmosphere – credit to team mentor Gautam Gambhir – and Rana was prompt to post a picture of the youngster raising the bat after reaching his half-century, captioning it: “Ankyy boyyyy”. Raghuvanshi’s reply oozed respect and modesty: “This was for you bhaiya”.
A Marcus Rashford picture accompanied the post, the United forward resplendent in his trademark celebration. Raghuvanshi is a big fan of Rashford as well. Only a couple of weeks ago, he reposted Rashford’s goal-scoring stats against the ‘Big 6’ after United had beaten Liverpool in the FA Cup quarter-final.
Coming to cricket, the journey so far has been fascinating for the 18-year-old. Originally from Delhi, he came to Mumbai at 11 years of age, was spotted by Abhishek Nayar and he has been honing his skills under the KKR assistant coach since.
Raghuvanshi played the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Mumbai. He was also India’s highest run-getter (278) at the 2022 U-19 World Cup. Credit to the KKR management for giving youth a chance. They could have easily replaced Rana with the experienced Manish Pandey. But they chose Raghuvanshi instead, someone who was brilliantly organised during his 27-ball 54.
The innings made the experts sit up and take note. Former England captain Michael Vaughan likened him to Shubman Gill. But the sudden limelight seemed to have made Raghuvanshi uncomfortable. At the post-match press conference, he was almost apologetic.
“I think, the way I have been practising for the last two weeks, that got me to play at a good level,” he said. Nayar’s contribution had to be acknowledged. “My coach Abhishek Nayar, the way he has made me practise, I didn’t really have to think too much when I went to bat. He is basically my guru, my mentor and everything.”
Raghuvanshi has made a bright start to his IPL career and if morning shows the day, he has a bright future ahead.