Who is Pratham Singh?
An aggressive left-handed opener, Singh has been the Railways’ leading run-scorer in white-ball domestic cricket since his T20 debut in 2019. In the 2019-20 Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy, his debut season, Singh was instrumental in helping Railways top Group C in the league stage amassing 438 runs in 10 matches at an average of 54.75 and strike-rate of 136.02.
He held a Tier-C job with the Railways after completing his engineering degree in Electronics and communication but Singh’s primary role involved playing as much cricket as he could for the Railways’ team in Indian domestic cricket.
In 2017, in what turned out to be his breakthrough year, he made his Ranji trophy and Vijay Hazare debut before Gujarat Lions snapped him at the auction for his first taste of the IPL. Despite not playing a game, he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Brendon McCullum, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik honing his technical and mental skills.
Pandemic and a management degree
With the Covid-19 pandemic bringing all domestic cricket to a halt, Singh turned his focus towards clearing GMAT, an entrance exam for MBA programs, and enrolled into one of the most esteemed business schools in India, the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad after briefly toying with the idea of pursuing cricketing ambitions in the UK.
But despite securing an admit from ISB, Singh, deep down felt his urge to continue on his cricketing journey unavoidable and once white-ball domestic cricket resumed in the country, Singh had his admission deferred until he stopped playing.
His father, Sudhir Singh, a Civil Engineer with the New Delhi Municipal Corporation, has been a constant source of encouragement for him throughout, supporting every move of his.
T20 form and IPL 2022
The 29-year-old currently has a healthy T20 average of 33.16 with the highest score of 89 against a strong Mumbai outfit in a Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy outing in 2019, in his debut season when he struck four consecutive fifties. But it was his rich vein of form in the 2020-21 Syed Mushtaq Ali season when he scored 299 runs which included a century and two fifties at an average of 74.75 that caught the eyes of KKR’s talent scouts.
Come the 2022 IPL auction and KKR secured his services for INR 20 Lakhs.
