Kumar Kushagra is making his debut for the Gujarat Titans against the Rajasthan Royals, his first IPL game in two years, on Saturday, April 4. Who is the 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batter?
Kumar Kushagra replaces Shubman Gill in GT XII for first IPL game in two years
A wicketkeeper from Jharkhand, the land of MS Dhoni and Ishan Kishan, Kushagra fetched a massive INR 7.2 crore bid from the Delhi Capitals at the IPL 2024 auction, 36 times his base price of INR 20 lakh. He made four appearances for them that season, playing just seven deliveries to score three runs. He was subsequently released by the franchise.
Gujarat Titans showed faith in him, signing the right-handed top-order batter for INR 65 lakh at the mega auction next year. Though he didn’t play in 2025, Kushagra got his opportunity with Shubman Gill forced to sit out due to a muscle spasm in their second match of the 2026 season.
Kumar Kushagra had an impactful 2025 SMAT season for Jharkhand
The opportunity likely came on the back of an impactful 2025 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in a title-winning season for Jharkhand. He finished as the third-highest run-scorer of the tournament, hitting 422 runs in 10 games at a strike-rate of 162, with four fifties.
The run included a 38-ball 81 in the final from No.3, where he constructed a match-winning 177-run stand with captain Kishan. The recent campaign was a massive improvement on the 2024 SMAT season, when he scored 111 runs in five matches at a strike rate of 144, with one fifty.
Kushagra carried his SMAT form into Vijay Hazare and Ranji Trophy as well, and even captained Jharkhand in the 50-over competition in Kishan’s absence. He was his state side’s second-highest scorer in the 2025/26 Ranji Trophy season, scoring 572 runs in eight matches at 47.67 with two hundreds and a fifty. In the VHT, he scored 368 runs in seven games at 73.60, and a strike rate of 103.
Ahead of the 2024 season, Kushagra had played just 11 T20 matches and scored 140 runs at a strike rate of 118, but two years on, he is more experienced, with 676 runs in 32 20-over matches at a strike-rate of 145.68. He also has a SMAT title and a senior captaincy stint under his belt now.
Notably, Kushagra was part of India’s 2020 U19 World Cup squad that lost to Bangladesh in the final, but played just one game with Dhruv Jurel the first-choice wicketkeeper.
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