Pawan Negi

A slow-left arm orthodox spinner who has the capability of hitting some lusty blows down the order is the best way to describe Pawan Negi who was the million-dollar baby in the 2016 IPL auctions.

Career

Domestic career

Pawan Negi plays for Delhi in the domestic circuit and he has so far represented his state in 19 List-A matches where he has picked 25 wickets at an average of 21.48 whilst scoring 187 runs. The year he was selected to don the India-A jersey for the first time was the same season when Negi was dropped from his state's Ranji side.

IPL Career

Pawan Negi’s moment under the sun came in the 2016 season when impressive performances with MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings catapulted him to the top buys of the IPL auctions. Negi was picked up for a whopping sum of Rs 8.5 crores by Delhi Daredevils during the auctions ahead of the 2016 IPL. However, this wasn't his first stint with the Daredevils as he had previously featured for them in the 2012 and 2013 tournament before switching allegiance to the MS Dhoni’s CSK. Dhoni had used Negi cleverly while in CSK, often opening the bowling with the left-arm spinner. He had also contributed with the bat coming lower down the order.

However, as is the case with most million-dollar buys, Negi failed to live upto his price-tag and failed miserably by turning up with a below-par performance which led to the franchise letting him go at the end of the season.

He was then brought by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for Rs 1 crore. As luck would have it, he turned out to be a more than useful buy, finishing as the top wicket-taker, with 16 from 12 matches. In IPL 2018 Player Auction DD bought Pawan Negi for INR 1 cr, but RCB used their RTM card to have him back in their squad. In the last two seasons, Pawan Negi has only played 9 matches and picked up 4 wickets. Interestingly, Negi has the record for the best bowling figures in a Champions League T20 match (5/22)

International career

T20I Career

Negi's stellar show with CSK got the eyeballs of the selectors and he went on to play a solitary Twenty20 match for India - against United Arab Emirates (UAE), during the 2016 Asia Cup where he bowled 3 overs and picked a wicket. On the back of a good season in domestic limited-overs cricket, he was selected as India's fourth spinner for the World T20.

Background

Pawan Negi was born on 6 January 1993 to GS Negi and Kamla Negi in Delhi. Negi's family belongs to Almora in Uttarakhand, but now his family lives in Delhi where he was born and brought up. Pawan Negi has completed his school education from Delhi Public School. He had once applied for Delhi University through the sports quota but failed to get the admission after failing to procure proper documents.