Utkarsh Singh

Some Lesser Known Facts About Utkarsh Singh

• Utkarsh Singh is an Indian cricketer, who plays as an all-rounder for Jharkhand in domestic leagues and for Punjab Kings in IPL.

• Utkarsh Singh is one of the most impressive talents around in the domestic circuit. He started his cricketing journey under the watchful eyes of Tarak Sinha, who has also coached the likes of Rishabh Pant.

• He played his Under-16 and Under-19 cricket for Delhi before he shifted to his home state to play first-class cricket for Jharkhand. He was also part of the India Under 19 World Cup squad.

  

• On 9th November 2017, Utkarsh Singh made his debut in first-class cricket for Jharkhand against Jammu and Kashmir in Ranji Trophy 2017-18 season. He managed to score 50 runs and picked up a three-wicket haul in his debut match.

  

• Utkarsh Singh picked up 6 wickets from 8 first-class matches in the 2018-19 Ranji trophy season. In the consecutive season, his performance took a huge leap forward picking 18 wickets in 8 matches for his side.

• Utkarsh Singh has played 18 first-class matches scoring 737 runs and his highest batting score being 114 runs. He has also picked up 25 wickets in 18 first-class matches with his best bowling figure being 5/130.

• On 11 February 2018, Utkarsh Singh made his List-A debut for Jharkhand against Saurashtra at Secunderabad. He managed to score six runs in that match and put up a decent performance with the ball picking up a wicket and giving away just 26 runs.

• Utkarsh Singh has scored 360 runs in 19 List-A matches with the highest score of 100 runs in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He has picked up 18 wickets and has a couple of four-wicket hauls to his name with 4/34 being his best figure in respective matches.

  

• Utkarsh Singh made his T20 debut for Jharkhand against Manipur in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on 24th February 2019. He picked up a three-wicket haul and gave away just 13 runs from his four-over spell for Jharkhand and won the match comfortably.

  

• Utkarsh Singh picked up 18 wickets in 21 matches at an economy rate of 6.27 with his best bowling figure in this format being 3/7. He has scored 238 runs with 49* being his best in this format in the respective games for his side.

• In an interview, Utkarsh Singh talks about how MS Dhoni was a huge influence on him and helped him develop and shape his perspective towards the game. He said-:
  

  Whenever we have a camp in Ranchi, he always comes and practices with the team. And obviously, he’s always been a guiding influence on all of us here, I remember him telling me ‘’Utkarsh dekh, mujhe sirf ek hei cheez chahiye”, I want you to turn the ball every time you’re bowling, While bowling I see myself as a pure bowler and while batting as a pure batsman”

• Utkarsh Singh is a top-order batsman and an orthodox off-break spinner for his domestic side Jharkhand. He is hugely influenced by Mumbai Indians batsman Ishan Kishan, who also captains the Jharkhand side and often shares crease with him in domestic matches. Likewise, in bowling players like Shahbaz Nadeem have helped him with his spin bowling. This has proved to be a great learning curve for him in terms of his development.

• Utkarsh Singh was bought by Punjab Kings at a base price of 20 lakhs INR in the IPL auctions 2021. It was a huge relief for him after going unsold in the previous two IPL auctions.

• Sharing the dressing room with players like KL Rahul, Chris Gayle, Moises Henriques, and being under the tutelage of Anil Kumble may help him develop and get some necessary experience under his belt in the IPL.