Anuj Rawat is a young, talented southpaw who already has a healthy average in the late 30s in his initial days of First Class cricketing career. He has already breached the IPL gates and its only a matter of time before he showcases his talent on the world stage.
Anuj made his first-class debut for Delhi in the 2017–18 Ranji Trophy on 6 October 2017 and scored 71 and 13 runs in the two innings of the match. He also manged to take two scalps behind the stumps. The 20-year-old played for Delhi during the 2019-20 edition of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and scored an impressive 88* against Saurashtra. So far, Anuj Rawat has featured in 19 first-class games and scored 925 runs, averaging 34.25. He has also featured in 23 short-format games across List A and T20 cricket, averaging a decent 35 and 26 respectively. With the gloves, the 20-year old has affected 82 dismissals. If we go by the statistics, it wouldn't be a hyperbole to predict that Anuj Rawat has the ingredients to become one of the best wicket-keeper batsmen for India in future.
The Rajasthan Royals, impressed by his performance in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy decided to rope him for INR 80 Lakhs at the auction in December 2019. It will be difficult for Anuj to break into the Royals Playing XI but he will look to learn valuable lessons from the likes of Steve Smith, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, and Robin Uthappa in the dugout.
Hailing from Ram Nagar in Uttarakhand the left handed batsman is only in his early cricketing days and with the amount of talent he has, Rawat has a long way to go. His father Virendra Pal Singh Rawat is a farmer. At the age of 11, Anuj came to Delhi and got himself enrolled in Raj Kumar Sharma’s academy in Paschim Vihar, West Delhi.
While playing a first-class game for Delhi, Gautam Gambhir fielded at slips and guided Anuj on how to refine his keeping skills. Gambhir told the youngster that a gloveman should know their bowlers well and constant practising with them makes it better. As for Ishant Sharma, the pacer taught him the distance needed to maintain from the stumps and leg movement. Gambhir always used to mention to watch the ball and assess its movement carefully.
