How a former IAF employee Saurabh Kumar made his way into Indian Test team

There were quite a few big decisions taken before the Indian team for the series against Sri Lanka was announced earlier today. While veterans Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha finds themselves out of favour in the Rohit Sharma era, the likes of Priyank Panchal, Shreyas Iyer and KS Bharat seems to have the vote of confidence from both the captain and the coach.

While almost all the names in the Test squad have been around the team for quite some time, the selectors did gift a maiden international call-up to a left-arm spinner - Saurabh Kumar.

Who is Saurabh Kumar?

Saurabh Kumar is a spinning all-rounder who plies his trade for the state of Uttar Pradesh in the domestic circuit. The 28-year-old was recently picked by the Punjab Kings for IPL 2022 at his base price of INR. 20 lakh.

When Saurabh started off in the domestic circuit during the mid-2010s, the Uttar Pradesh side was full of quality spinners including the likes of a young Kuldeep Yadav, the world cup winning spinner Piyush Chawla and others.

Sensing the lack of opportunities with his state team, Saurabh took up a job with the Indian Air Force (IAF) and made his first class debut for Services. He finished the season as the team's second highest wicket-taker with 17 wickets and also contributed 304 runs batting lower down the order.

This performance made the UP selectors take note of a young Saurabh and they roped him in for the next season. The southpaw has been plying his trade for his home team ever since.

Saurabh Kumar's rise to the top was never easy.

He used to travel from Baurat in UP to Delhi daily for his practice sessions in train. His passion for the sport was so much that he then used to take a bus from the Delhi railway station to the National Stadium before using the same route back home.

Saurabh, however, always found constant backing from his family despite their financial constrains. His father used to be a Kabaddi player during his heydays, but could not pursue the sport as a career due to other responsibilities.

All his efforts seemed to have bore fruit when the Rising Pune Supergiants drafted him to their squad for the 2017 IPL season. Despite having a stellar domestic season to back him up, Saurabh spent the entire season as an understudy to the Imran Tahir, Washington Sundar and Rahul Chahar and did not get a single game.

The youngster, though, did not lose heart. Instead, he went and toiled hard in the domestic circuit and was named in the extended Indian squad for the series against England early last year.

Saurabh Kumar has so far played a total of 46 first class games, scalping 196 wickets at an impressive average of 24.15. He also boasts of scoring 1572 runs in 63 innings, including two centuries.