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Former Australian cricketer and former Rajasthan Royals member Shane Watson has seen many young talents emerging in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Since the start of the league, the former batting all-rounder has had the opportunity to watch some of the emerging talents from very close quarters. Angkrish Raghuvanshi is one of them.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi is among the talents being groomed under the watch of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) management. The team has high expectations from him as he has been showing signs of greatness from a very young age.
KKR has deep confidence in Angkrish Raghuvanshi
Angkrish Raghuvanshi is now a 21-year-old keeper-batsman. When he joined Kolkata Knight Riders three seasons ago, he was a 19-year-old teenager. Ahead of the IPL 2026 season, the KKR team management had carried out some major reinforcements to give a new shape to the team. They released many star players but retained Raghuvanshi, which showed how much faith the management had in the young player.
Ahead of the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), KKR assistant coach Shane Watson explained why he has so much confidence in the 21-year-old player. Going a step further, Watson also compared the keeper-batsman to young Sanju Samson. Watson got a chance to watch Sanju Samson up close during his days with Rajasthan Royals.
Shane Watson compares Angkrish Raghuvanshi to young Sanju Samson
At the pre-match press conference ahead of the RCB vs KKR match in New Raipur, Watson said that Angkrish Raghuvanshi has developed himself a lot and will perform better in the future too.
“I have been fortunate to watch some incredibly talented young cricketers in the IPL over the years. I remember watching Sanju Samson as a 17-year-old and being in awe of his skill level. Angkrish is one of those players,” the KKR coach said.
His skill development at the age of 21 is truly astonishing. We’ve seen glimpses of what he can do, but there’s more to come. The biggest thing is his ability to adapt to different conditions and bowlers despite having a wide range of shot options.
Watson mentioned an incident in the net session
To illustrate the budding talent of the Delhi-born player, Watson referred to one of his net sessions in Raipur, which was conducted on a challenging surface. The wicket was not easy to bat on, but Angkrish performed well enough to impress the assistant coach.
Shane Watson said, “Even in training yesterday, on a challenging wicket, some of the things he was doing were ridiculous to watch. He’s only getting better as he continues to learn to use that skill. And now he’s keeping wickets too, which makes it even more impressive because he wasn’t originally a full-time keeper.”
So far, in IPL 2026, the keeper-batsman has scored 269 runs in 10 matches and 10 innings with a strike rate of 135.85 and a batting average of 29.88, with the help of three half-centuries.
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