After a successful IPL season, Navdeep Saini has earned his maiden India call-up for the West Indies tour. He is the part of both ODI and T20I squads. 26-year-old bowler had impressed everyone with his pace in IPL 2019 season. He was consistently bowling with 145+ KMPH and was the most successful pacer for RCB in the previous season.
Navdeep Saini Journey To Team India
Navdeep Saini hails from a middle-class family of Karnal district of Haryana. His father is a government driver who never stopped his son from playing cricket. In Karnal, Saini used to play Tennis ball cricket tournaments where his earning was 200 rupees per match.
In 2013, he moved one step forward as he started playing leather ball cricket in Karnal Premier league where he caught Delhi bowler Sumit Narwal’s eyes. Later, Sumit gave Navdeep Saini a chance to bowl in front of Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir.
With his pace, Saini left an impression on Gautam Gambhir who has an important role behind Navdeep Saini’s success. Then, Navdeep Saini had not enough money to buy sports shoes but Gambhir provided him with the new pair of shoes. Delhi captain wanted him to be in the domestic team and he even fought with the state selectors to get the pacer in Ranji Team.
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Finally, both Gambhir and Saini’s efforts paid off and Navdeep Saini was now a member of Delhi team in the 2013-14 season. Since then, Saini hasn’t looked back. He is a consistent performer in domestic cricket and he has also left an impact in IPL. Recently, he performed exceptionally well for India-A when playing against West Indies-A. He picked up a fifer during 2nd unofficial ODI in Antigua. Following his IPL performance plus his recent performance in West Indies selectors have rewarded Navdeep Saini a place in the India limited-overs side.
Navdeep Saini has always given credit for his success to Gautam Gambhir. In 2017 he said, “I owe this life and my success to Gautam Gambhir. I was nobody and Gautam bhaiya did everything for me”.