Wellington to Wankhede: How Rachin Ravindra has made himself cricket's new poster boy

On his first day off in two months, in a city that offers everything for everyone - a 225-hectare wildlife sanctuary, award-winning restaurants and bars, sprawling museums and a thriving film hub - guess what Rachin Ravindra did?

"I managed to squeeze in a little net." He laughs. So he knows it is utterly ridiculous. "I enjoy it. Sometimes it can be a bit therapeutic or it's always nice to have something to work towards. And I've done it from a very young age, so that helps me a lot. You get into your space and really enjoy what you do and soak it all in." Poor Wellington. It never even had a chance.

Earlier this year, the 24-year-old left-hander made as many runs as any New Zealander has ever done in a single edition of the men's ODI World Cup. He outdid 142 of 143 batters at scoring against spin, and went for an aggressive shot roughly once every six balls. He still ended up with a control percentage of 86. Ravindra also likes stuffing raw fish into his team-mates' kit bags and used to cry when it rained because it meant he couldn't go outside and play.

"I was only a kid back then (laughs). These are definitely things I won't do now."

The 2024 IPL auction will take place on December 19 while Ravindra prepares to put on his black cap and go out to face Bangladesh in an ODI in Nelson. He has set his base price at INR 50 lakh (USD 60,000 approx.) - looks like he wants to be picked over striking it rich - and has actively tried to forget all about it.

"It's external noise. People can speculate all they want and they're allowed to be excited about potential players going to the IPL teams they support and that's sport. As a kid, I enjoyed watching my heroes play for the team I supported not just in cricket but also football and basketball. You get attached and I completely understand. It's not rocket science; whatever happens will happen. What's important right now is the Bangladesh one-day series in front of me, so I'm getting prepared for that."

Most IPL teams have fairly settled top-order options so they might not be in a tearing hurry to bring in someone who averages 16 and strikes at 123 over a T20 career that spans a mere 53 matches. But there are intangibles to consider here, notably how Ravindra has always risen to a challenge. Here is Sriram Krishnamurthy, who works with Chennai Super Kings in their grassroots programme, talking all about it.

"I had been appointed Wellington's Under-19 coach and I hadn't really had a look at this boy. But there had been talk about him, about how he could be a very good player in the future. To be honest, at that stage, there was a bit more hype around his bowling. So, I was just curious to see who this player is and I happened to watch him one day and… it was evident what people were saying."

"When we originally selected Rachin for the Wellington Under-19 team, it was the year of the 2016 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh and it was a strategic move. We knew that this boy was young and perhaps might not make it to the New Zealand Under-19 team. However, we also knew if he's able to show his promise through performances, there's an outside chance he could be picked. I had this conversation with him when he was just 15."

Ravindra was a little nervous about making his debut. But help arrived, in unusual fashion. "I remember it very vividly," he says, "I was a bit sick and I wasn't feeling as good as I'd want to physically. And that almost was quite good because it took the edge off the cricket, you know. You're more worried about the sickness rather than actually the game and what's happening. So you're mind's somewhere else which was quite nice and you're only watching the ball. All the other external things didn't matter."

He hit a century that day. "I still remember the way I got out. It was a sweep shot to a legspinner. I didn't play a sweep shot through the whole innings and all of a sudden I played the sweep and was out lbw. But it gave me the confidence at that age. When you're 15 and competing with guys who are 18-19, who are bigger or stronger, you put yourself in that situation and you have the confidence to perform. The most fun I've ever had was during the years Sri was coaching. It was just unbelievable."

Ravindra did go to that Under-19 World Cup in 2016 and he came back as New Zealand's joint-highest wicket-taker. He was realising he was made for this. Two years later, he levelled up again, to the point that he found himself in the UAE, competing with established international players like BJ Watling and Mohammad Rizwan. These experiences built his self-belief and he began charging up the learning curve so hard it started to look like a straight line.

"I've seen Rachin facing big boys right from when he was young," Krishnamurthy says. "When I was the batting coach of NZ A, we went to play against Pakistan and their bowlers are very skilful. My memories don't come through with regards to who the bowlers were at the time. But he made a couple of fifties in the four-day games. I've seen him do this against quality oppositions from when he was very young and part of that goes back to the person he is. He is not going to get overawed by who is bowling to him. What he's doing is he's enjoying himself."

If the IPL is about talent meeting opportunity, Ravindra is about seizing opportunity at every turn, which is how he has gone from being little more than a dream; a future that even New Zealand thought was still some way off to capturing the imagination of cricket fans all over the world right here, right now.

Picture the Wankhede. The crowd there serenading him. They already know the tune. Just need to change one syllable. The Eden Gardens could use him too. Kolkata Knight Riders had the fewest fifty-plus scores by openers in IPL 2023. The same metric, applied to No. 3s, puts Sunrisers Hyderabad at the bottom of the table. In the three times those two teams have won the IPL, they had a top-order batter performing at the peak of his powers. Ravindra has enough potential to tick that box.

"Rachin's set-up is really simple," Krishnamurthy says. "He doesn't do these trigger movements and stays as still as he can. It allows him to watch the ball hard. When we speak about batters, we speak about intent but that comes naturally to Rachin. Wanting to play in a positive manner is ingrained in him. The conscious effort from him is to watch the ball hard. So he stays as still as possible."

"His natural strength is to play the ball late. He has a good back-foot game. Always did. He can cut the ball and is a very good puller. He also has this knack of playing the square-drive on the up. He has always showed that he can play balls that are short or short-of-a-good-length very well. From there, what he had to do was make himself more rounded and this World Cup showed he's done that."

The most striking image of Ravindra at the crease as he made 578 runs in 10 ODIs across October and November is the front foot drive, probably through the covers. He opted for it a total of 135 times and gained 115 runs but it was all a ruse. By allowing himself to be a little more forceful when he pushed forward, he tricked bowlers into making mistakes they didn't even know were mistakes and promptly took them for all they were worth. You know, like Danny Ocean, but with better hair. Eighty-three of Ravindra's runs came via the pull shot. He only had 33 chances to unleash it but it still yielded a third of his boundaries (14 of 42).

Being able to take calculated risks like that and seeing them through to the desired result elevates him from a simple accumulator to a skilful disruptor and isn't that the profile of player who makes T20 franchises break the bank?