Hyderabad pacer Nishanth Saranu is surely a player to watch out for in the upcoming IPL 2025 mega auction. The 6 foot 9 inch pacer made his Ranji Trophy debut for the Telangana capital in their opening game against Gujarat on Friday. Prior to his domestic debut, he was a net bowler for the Mumbai Indians (MI) and for the Pakistan cricket team during the ODI World Cup. Once again, another promising domestic talent has come to the fore whose career can be catalysed by IPL.
Who is Nishanth Saranu, player to watch out for in IPL 2025 auction?
For a person who entered cricket to shed weight, Saranu’s journey is nothing short of inspirational. He was first net bowler for Pakistan, helping Babar Azam & co. prepare for their game in Hyderabad during the ODI World Cup in 2023. Nishanth was next a net bowler once again earlier in January when India locked horns with England in the Test series, where he also managed to garb the eyeballs of then head coach Rahul Dravid.
It became only sweeter for the 19-year-old when he joined the Mumbai Indians (MI) as net bowler for IPL 2024.
MI’s bowling coach TA Sekhar had in fact recommended Saranu’s inclusion as the team’s net bowler after spotting his performances in the Cooch Behar Trophy and Vijay Merchant tournaments.
“It was a big learning curve. I mostly spent talking to Gerald Coetzee… but bowling to all the top players was indeed special. Because of my height, they were not hitting me straight,” Nishanth Saranu told the Indian Express.
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How Haris Rauf helped Nishanth Saranu
There’s a Pakistan touch to Nishanth Saranu’s story as well. It dates back to the ODI World Cup in October 2023. As a net bowler, Nishanth recalls one of his interactions with pacer Haris Rauf and how some golden words uttered by the Pakistani came out to be true.
“I didn’t have much pace, but Haris Rauf told me once you cross 18, you will add more muscle and pace will come automatically. And that’s what has happened. Morkel Sir also said the same thing and even took my phone number,” Nishanth added.
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