Saurabh Rawat: The Wicketkeeper-Batter Rebuilding Uttarakhand Cricket

Saurabh Rawat is not a household name the way a World Cup winning captain might be, and that is precisely what makes his story worth telling. He is the kind of cricketer domestic Indian cricket runs on: a wicketkeeper batter who has spent close to a decade grinding through Ranji Trophy, Vijay Hazare Trophy, and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy seasons for two different states, quietly building a reputation as a batter capable of playing the long innings when his team needs one most.

Today, Saurabh Rawat is one of the senior faces of the Uttarakhand cricket set up a team that has spent years fighting for relevance in India's crowded domestic circuit and is now, finally, being talked about on its own terms. His journey from an Odisha age group prospect to a double centurion and Uttarakhand mainstay mirrors the slow, patient rise of the team itself.

Born on 21 December 1997 in Delhi, Saurabh Rawat grew up in a city that, at the time, was overflowing with batting talent competing for a handful of domestic slots. Rather than wait his turn in one of Indian cricket's most competitive state set ups, he took his game to Odisha at the age group level, representing the state in the Vinoo Mankad and Cooch Behar Trophy competitions and earning a place in the East Zone side for the Inter Zone Tournament in 2015-16.

That decision to look beyond Delhi one many young cricketers from the capital have had to make over the years paid off. It gave Rawat a clear pathway into senior domestic cricket that a saturated Delhi line up may not have offered as quickly.

• Full Name: Saurabh Anand Singh Rawat
• Born: 21 December 1997, Delhi
• Batting Style: Right-hand bat
• Playing Role: Wicketkeeper-Batter

Rawat's senior debut came for Odisha in the 2016-17 Ranji Trophy on 13 October 2016, followed quickly by his Twenty20 debut for the state later that season and a List A debut in the 2017-18 Vijay Hazare Trophy. These were formative years results were modest, but the experience of keeping wicket and batting through a full domestic season gave him the grounding he would later draw on.

By the end of the 2017-18 season, however, it was clear that a fresh challenge and a clearer path into the team beckoned. Ahead of the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy, Rawat made the move from Odisha to Uttarakhand, a state cricket association still finding its feet in the Ranji Trophy after gaining full membership only a few years earlier.

Rawat's first season in Uttarakhand colours turned out to be the best of his career. In the round three fixture of the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy against Sikkim, he played the innings that would define his reputation as a batter an unbeaten 220 off 381 balls, his maiden double century in first class cricket. It was a innings built on patience as much as power, the kind of marathon knock that domestic cricket rewards but rarely produces.

That double hundred anchored a superb season overall: Rawat finished 2018-19 with 593 runs at an average of 59.30, numbers that placed him among the most productive batters in Uttarakhand's line up that year. Like many domestic careers, his red-ball form dipped in the seasons that followed, interrupted further by the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic across Indian cricket but the 2018-19 season remains the high water mark he has spoken of wanting to recapture as he enters his cricketing prime.

If the double century built his reputation in the record books, it was a Twenty20 innings six years later that brought Rawat back into the spotlight. In September 2024, the inaugural Uttarakhand Premier League (UPL) a franchise T20 tournament organised by the Cricket Association of Uttarakhand kicked off in Dehradun, and Rawat was picked for the Haridwar Spring Elmas, a side led by former India batter Ravikumar Samarth.

Chasing 177 against the Dehradun Warriors, who had posted their total on the back of Aditya Tare's blazing 73 off 41 balls, Spring Elmas collapsed to 40 for 5 inside seven overs with the game slipping away fast. Walking in at No. 5, Rawat rebuilt the innings with a composed 81 run stand alongside Saurav Chauhan, and once Chauhan fell, he simply took over. His unbeaten 97 off just 49 balls, laced with 11 fours and 4 sixes, carried Haridwar home by four wickets in a finish that instantly made him the story of the tournament's opening night.

Rawat's most meaningful contribution to Uttarakhand cricket, though, may be the seasons spent simply staying in the team as it matured into a genuine contender. In the 2025-26 Ranji Trophy, Uttarakhand beat Jharkhand by an innings and six runs to reach their first ever Ranji Trophy semi final a landmark for a team that had spent most of its history fighting relegation battles rather than knockout football. Rawat contributed both with the gloves and occasionally with the ball in that campaign, chipping in with useful runs down the order and picking up wickets in Uttarakhand's innings win over Jharkhand.

The dream run ended at the semi final stage against Karnataka, with the match finishing in a draw before Karnataka advanced on first innings lead. For a state association that has had to build its domestic programme almost from scratch, simply reaching that stage marked a watershed moment, and long serving squad members like Rawat who arrived in the team's early, unglamorous years are central to how that progress happened.

Rawat has featured across all three domestic formats for Odisha and Uttarakhand, with his best returns consistently coming in the longer format when conditions and form align.

Note: Domestic career figures are compiled from match reports and scorecards across seasons; readers looking for ball-by-ball or match-by-match records can cross check the complete, continuously updated figures on his ESPNcricinfo profile linked below.

What separates Rawat from a purely flashy stroke player is the range on display across his two signature innings. The 220 against Sikkim was an exercise in patience nearly six and a half hours of concentration built for red ball cricket. The 97 against Dehradun Warriors was the opposite: compressed, aggressive, and built to rescue a T20 chase from the brink. Few domestic wicketkeeper batters get to show both sides of their game on this kind of stage, and Rawat's ability to do so is exactly why Uttarakhand have continued to trust him with both the gloves and a middle order batting slot across formats.

• Left a crowded Delhi set up early to forge his own path through Odisha's age group system
• Struck a maiden double century (220* vs Sikkim) in his very first season representing Uttarakhand
• Rescued a UPL 2024 run chase from 40/5 with an unbeaten 97 off 49 balls in the tournament's opening match
• A senior squad member as Uttarakhand reached their first ever Ranji Trophy semi final in 2025-26

Saurabh Rawat's career is not built around a single viral moment it is built around showing up, season after season, for a state cricket team that had to earn its stripes the hard way. As Uttarakhand cricket's profile keeps rising, so does the story of the wicketkeeper batter who has been behind the stumps for much of that climb.

For his complete, continuously updated match statistics, visit his official profile on ESPNcricinfo. You can also read the story of fellow Delhi born cricketer Unmukt Chand's journey to the USA, or explore more cricketers and sportspersons from Uttarakhand on our site.