On April 2, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will welcome the five-time champion Mumbai Indians in their opening game of the IPL 2023. Prior to being defeated by the Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2 last year, RCB had advanced to the semifinals in the IPL 2022.
The fast bowler from Jammu and Kashmir was selected by RCB for 60 Lakhs at the IPL sale ahead of the 2023 season. While this is less than the 18.5 crores that Sam Curran brought in, it is still more than enough to completely change a family’s circumstances over night.
Both Avinash and Umran Malik come from Jammu, have identical bowling motions, and frequently throw at 150 kph. When it comes to T20 cricket, consistency is the most important element, so it will be interesting to see if Avinash can move the ball as well, as Malik has so far been unable to do. Avinash hasn’t participated in a professional leather ball cricket match, but he very well could on one of the biggest platforms ever.
“This auction was an opportunity for RCB to venture into the other wing of our scouting, known as Hinterland scouting,” says RCB’s Head of Scouting, Malolan Rangarajan. “It’s a very very objective way of identifying talent where we don’t use human eyes. We have our AI partner helping us out, identifying talent. When we had gone to Jammu and Kashmir, we had identified Avinash over there. Ever since then, he ticked off a few parameters of us. One of which, the most important parameter is, for him to be able to bowl (at a speed of) 145(Kilometres per hour),” he adds. (RCB)
Who is Avinash Singh? He’d never played professional leather ball cricket until Hinterland Scouting introduced us to this new Jammu and Kashmir pace sensation. Find out more on who he is, and what RCB’s plans are.#PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/NXloftaWqJ
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) December 25, 2022