Nehal Wadhera

Nehal Wadhera (born 4 September 2000) is an Indian cricketer, who bats left-handed and bowls legbreaks occasionally. He currently plays for the Punjab cricket team in domestic cricket after previously representing India under-19 cricket team.

Early life

Wadhera was born on 4 September 2000 at Ludhiana, a city in the Indian state of Punjab. His father, Kamal Wadhera, is an industrialist. His mother’s name is Gurpreet Wadhera. He has an elder sister named Rhythm Wadhera. He began playing cricket when he was nine years old. Initially, he played as a specialist batsman and put in long hours to improve his fitness. He is sometimes described to as “new-age Yuvraj Singh” because of his middle-order performances and batting style resemblance to Yuvraj Singh. He began playing cricket under the tutelage of his childhood coach, Charanjit Bhangu. In age-group cricket, he was coached by Harjinder Singh, who saw “glimpses of Yuvraj” in him. He was trained by the Ludhiana District Cricket Association.

He attended the Sacred Heart Convent School at Sarabha Nagar, Ludhiana, until the 10th standard, and then the B. C. M. Arya Model Senior Sec. School for the 11th and 12th grades. He graduated from Satish Chander Dhawan Government College in Ludhiana, Punjab.

career

From 2015 to 2018, he represented Punjab’s under-16 and under-19 cricket teams in the Vijay Merchant Trophy and Cooch Behar Trophy, scoring 529 runs in the 2017-18 season. He was then chosen to play for several ranks of India’s under-19 cricket squad. On 17 July 2018, he made his under-19 debut for India against Sri Lanka in a four-day match, scoring 82 runs. He was also the third cricketer from Ludhiana to represent India at any level. He was picked to India’s squad for the 2016 ACC Under-19 Asia Cup in August 2018. During the semi-final of the Inter-District U-23 Cricket Championship in April 2022, he hammered 578 runs in an innings, breaking Brian Lara’s record for the highest score in an innings in a four-day contest.

He also became the fastest player in any level of recognised cricket to reach 200, 300, 400, and 500 runs, and was acknowledged for his achievement by Junior Chamber International.

Domestic career

Wadhera was picked to Punjab’s squad for the 2020–21 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in December 2020. He was signed by the Mumbai Indians in December 2022 for a fee of 20 lakh to play in the Indian Premier League. He became the third player from the  Ludhiana district to be called up to the IPL. Nehal was chosen to play for Punjab in the 2022–23 Ranji Trophy in January 2023. On 3 January 2023, he made his first-class debut for Punjab against Gujarat. In his maiden encounter, he scored a match-winning century, guiding Punjab to a 380-run triumph. On 18 January 2023, he scored 214 runs against Madhya Pradesh in his third first-class match, becoming the first player in history to do so. Wadhera was named player of the match and concluded his first-class debut with 376 runs from seven innings.

He made his Twenty20 debut for Mumbai Indians against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2023 Indian Premier League on April 2, 2023. He astonished everyone in his debut outing, scoring 21 runs off 13 balls, including two sixes.

Nehal Wadhera Batting Stats

External links

Nehal Wadhera at Instagram